The five-year residency training program in Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba is a well established, medium-sized training program designed to produce psychiatrists with broadly-based academic and clinical orientations.  We see our responsibilities as including the following:

1) To train psychiatrists who are fully qualified to practice within the complex, changing field that is modern psychiatry.

2) To provide a breadth of exposure and opportunity for depth of training in multi varied aspects of psychiatry, and for the training to be germane to the candidate's chosen community of practice.

3) To provide a formal educational program which prepares the residents, not only for success in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) specialty examinations, but also for a lifetime of educational pursuit and professional curiosity.

 4) To continue to change and evolve our training program in response to the changing needs of the residents, the community, and the specialty of psychiatry.

The program is designed to meet these objectives through several overlapping approaches, including, clinical rotations, the didactic curricula, the psychotherapy program, research, community-based experiences, and continuing education. Each of these components are briefly described below.

CLINICAL ROTATIONS

The PGY 1 Year  is a Basic Clinical Training (BCT) year, preceding the four formal years of psychiatry residency.  Starting in 1999 - 2000 academic year, this BCT year will consist of:

* Pediatrics (may include 4 weeks elective in Emergency Pediatrics

The following descriptions apply to the latter four years of residency.

Clinical training in the formal four-year program provides for two and one-half year of mandatory/core rotations, which are required for all residents, and one and one-half years of elective time.  This is consisted with current RCPS guidelines.

The PGY-2 year consists of six months of each of adult inpatient and adult outpatient psychiatry. The PGY-3 year consists of six months training in child and adolescent psychiatry and six months of training in chronic care psychiatry. However, some residents elect to spend a full year in child and adolescent psychiatry, deferring the core rotation in chronic care.  During the PGY-4 year of residency, six months will be spent in fulfilling core mandatory requirements in consultation-liaison and geriatric psychiatry.  The remaining 18 months are available for elective rotations, with residents encouraged to pursue individual interests.  A broad range of clinical, sub-specialty and research electives are available.

On Call Duty is part of the training for all residents.  Staff psychiatrists are committed to the principle that on-call duty is a valuable part of the educational program.

DIDACTIC CURRICULUM

There are protected academic sessions throughout all five years of training.

The PGY-1 seminars focus on developing relational skills with patients through interview observations, as well as a unique weekly group supervisory experience provided in parallel to seeing patients in a therapeutic context.

The PGY-2 curriculum is subdivided into theoretical bases, psychopathology, therapeutic modalities and professional development streams.  These areas are covered during seminars that occur one afternoon a week throughout the academic year.  The theoretical bases stream covers basic theories in both psychological and biological spheres.  The therapeutic modalities stream covers the various therapeutic techniques being used in Psychiatry.  This includes modes of psychotherapy as well as psycho-pharmacology.  The psychopathology stream covers phenomenology and classification.  The professional development stream pays attention to the emotional development of a psychiatric resident.  The PGY-2 seminar series focus is orientated to an adult problem focus.

The PGY-3 seminars are organized by the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and consists of a full year covering a broad range of topics.  These seminars occur one full morning per week throughout the academic year, exploring such areas as Child Development, Assessment, Disorders, and Therapeutic Interventions, both psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic.

The didactic curriculum for PGY-4/5 residents is less formally organized, and includes a number of components.  Seminars have been run on a number of advanced topics, including, teaching skills, research, methodology, and advanced psycho-pharmacology.  An examination preparation seminar, organized by and for residents preparing for the written part of the RCPS exams, is considered part of the PGY-4 didactic program.  For residents enrolled in the second year of the Career Training Program in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, additional advanced seminars are usually offered in parallel with this advanced clinical training. A formal oral exam preparation course constitutes part of the PGY-5 didactic curriculum and is organized by staff to assist in preparation for the RCPS oral exams.

In addition, the various clinical services offer a variety of educational rounds, critical literature reviews, journal clubs, etc.  Ancillary seminars available include psychotherapy seminars, adolescent continuous case, mood disorders series, a resident family therapy process group, etc., to name but a few.

PSYCHOTHERAPY PROGRAMS

Training in various psychotherapies plays an integral part in the program.  All residents are expected to achieve a level of competency in psychotherapeutic assessment and treatment.  Toward this end, each year every resident is provided with two ongoing cases.  This supervision continues throughout PGY-2 to PGY-5 years of the residency.  During the time spent in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, psychotherapy supervision focuses on treatment of the individual child, adolescent, or their family.  Training in brief psychotherapies, cognitive behavior therapies, family, marital and group therapies is strongly encouraged and facilitated through the psychotherapies training program.

In addition, an ongoing Advanced Psychotherapy Seminar Series is offered to all senior residents (PGY-4 and PGY-5).

For additional information, please visit the Psychotherapies Education Page.

RESEARCH

In keeping with RCPSC recommendations, residents are strongly encouraged to complete a research project during the course of their residency.  These projects may include (but are not limited to) critical literature reviews, formal case review and discussion, program analysis and development, quality assurance issues as well as more formal and traditional scientific endeavors.  In addition, residents are encouraged to develop their research so that they may submit them for publication and/or present their finding sat appropriate venues. Supervision and mentorship for such research is available through many of our teaching faculty.

Each spring, the department sponsors a Resident Research Day, at which time residents are encouraged and expected to present their various research interest.  This protected, all-day event is capped by an evening residents awards dinner, hosted by the department.  Distinguished visiting professors are often invited to facilitated a learned dialogue.

COMMUNITY BASED EXPERIENCES

Many of the clinical rotational experiences have community-orientated training opportunities available.  In recent years, residents have increasingly entered into community-based training rotations in their electives.  Opportunities are currently being developed to formalize training in First Nations issues, rural and remote community psychiatry as well as urban-based community endeavors.  Residents are supported to explore such endeavors further.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Departmental Grand Rounds, Visiting Professors, and special academic programs and conferences, are organized under the aegis of Continuing Education.

The Visiting Professor Program is particularly active, often bringing in up to twenty prominent individuals each academic year.  In addition to presenting a Grand Rounds, the Visiting Professors meet with the resident group informally, and present workshops which are primarily attended by residents.

Many additional Grand Rounds presentations are provided by local faculty, both from within the Department and from other University Departments (e.g. the Faculty of Law). In addition, each resident is expected to present at Grand Rounds at least once during his or her training.

EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK

The process of informal and formal evaluation of the residents' progress is continuous throughout the training program.  Similarly, the opportunity for residents to provide feedback on rotations, seminars and supervisors, goes on throughout the year.  In this way, both the functioning of individual residents and supervisors, and more general organization issues, can be addressed in what is hopefully a responsive and constructive manner. 

Form evaluation of clinical performance takes place four times in the PGY-2 year and twice per year thereafter.  Evaluation of the psychotherapy skills occurs twice each year.   Written exams occur annually, as do Departmental oral exams, which are modeled on the RCPS oral exam.  A global evaluation, taking into account the various components of the evaluation process, occurs once each year.  Residents are offered to annually challenge the national COPE exams each spring.

Residents are regularly asked to fill in formal evaluations of supervisors, rotations, and seminars.  These are taken into account in planning for the subsequent year.

Evaluations are fundamental in the continuous process of program development.  As well, there is also an annual resident group evaluations day, which is protected time.  These group evaluations are also used to provide constructive feedback to the faculty as well as stimulate program development.

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