Dr. Marla Shu (Additional instructors: Dr. Jagannath Devulapally, Dr. Gulam Noorani, Dr. Jamsheed Khan, Dr. Christina Girgis)

Contact for questions regarding this elective: Marla Shu, DO, MPH (marla.shu@va.gov)

The goal of this rotation is to expose senior medical students to the full spectrum of consults seen on a consultation liaison psychiatry service in the VA setting, and to allow the students to use that knowledge and apply it to the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of patients that present in the hospital. The learning environment will be the hospital inpatient setting, including general medical and surgical floors, medical intensive care unit, surgical intensive care unit, cardiac care unit, geriatric medicine unit, rehabilitation unit, spinal cord injury unit, and blind rehabilitation center. Students will participate in case discussions and be active members of the care team. They will complete a scholarly project chosen according to their interests, with mentoring from their supervisors. Students will also have the opportunity to attend weekly psychiatry grand rounds (excluding the summer months), various journal clubs, case conferences and PGY-1 didactics.

Expected schedule - M-F, 8 am - 4:30 pm; no weekends or federal holidays

Students will be evaluated on the basis of each of the eight core objectives, including medical knowledge, patient care, interpersonal and communication skills, practice-based learning and improvement, professionalism, systems-based practice, inter-professional collaboration, and personal and professional development. By the end of the rotation, the student should be able to perform a psychiatric evaluation of the medically or surgically hospitalized patient, determine a broad differential diagnosis, and formulate an appropriate treatment plan. Students will be evaluated based on the following: observation of a clinical interview, case discussion, medical record documentation, a 10-question multiple choice knowledge test, and a scholarly project.