Didactic Curriculum

The curriculum emphasizes a) the essential knowledge and skills of family medicine and psychiatry, and b) the skills necessary to integrate clinical practice in family medicine and psychiatric settings.

The goal is to train primary care clinicians with expertise in the management of mental disorders in primary care settings and to train psychiatrists who can manage the primary care needs of their patients. Residents follow the didactic curricula of the rotations to which they are assigned, e.g., psychiatry while on psychiatry rotations and family medicine while on family medicine rotations.

Family Medicine Didactics

Didactics occur for three Thursday afternoons each month.The second Thursday is each month is dedicated to continuity Geriatric experience (which occurs during the 4th and 5th years for FMP residents) at the Center for Community Living at the VA Medical Center, where residents follow two veterans residing in a long-term nursing facility monthly for two years, supervised by attending geriatricians.

In addition, while residents are on their inpatient Family Medicine months, they participate in daily noontime lectures on topics related to inpatient, outpatient, and OB. During off-service inpatient months the residents participate in the didactics of their specific rotation. For example, while on pediatric rotations at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center the residents participate in morning report, noon conferences and Grand Rounds with the pediatric residents.

Family Medicine Grand Rounds occur once a month at The Christ Hospital and are well-attended by residents, faculty, and community family physicians. Journal Club, Patient Safety Conference, Maternity Care M+M, and R3 Selective Lectures are featured regularly throughout the year.

Psychiatry Didactics

PGY 1 residents have lectures for five months in the first year, while PGY2 and PGY3 residents have didactic lectures throughout the year. Lectures typically take place on Tuesday or Thursday mornings depending on the month and year of training.Grand Rounds occur weekly on Wednesdays between September and June, followed by an informal question-and-answer session with the presenter for the residents. The remaining didactics occur on a longitudinal basis according to year of training and are aimed at introducing residents to psychopharmacology, psychotherapy and other topics relevant to the practice of psychiatry. Journal Club and Evidence-Based Medicine Topics are presented by residents and attended by residents and both clinical and research faculty.

In addition, a yearly research curriculum has been integrated into the program to expose residents to the basics of experimental design, which can be very useful in the creation of resident's required scholarly project - which may consist of a Grand Rounds or formal publication. See the Research Opportunities section for additional information.