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Frequently Asked Questions
- Tell me a little about Scott & White
- What is the accreditation status of the Psychiatry Residency?
- How does the program ensure residents will have adequate time for studying outside of their clinical duties?
- What is night call like?
- With rotations at hospitals in surrounding areas, how much traveling is a resident actually asked to do?
- What kinds of practices do your residents join after graduation?
- What are the advantages of living in Temple?
- What changes do you anticipate in your program over the next few years?
- Are residents required to do research?
- Will I have the opportunity to teach medical students?
- How successful are your residents at passing the Board Exam after residency?
- Are fellowships available at Scott & White?
- How much emphasis does the program place on psychotherapy?
- Can my spouse find employment and educational opportunities?
- What about moonlighting?
Tell me a little about Scott & White
Scott & White is a large teaching institution with over 300 residents and fellows training in almost every field of medicine.
As the primary teaching hospital for Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, it serves as the site of clinical rotations for more than 100 medical students per year. Scott & White is consistently named to the Top 15 teaching hospitals in the U.S.
What is the accreditation status of the Psychiatry Residency?
Our program was reviewed in 2005 and was given full accreditation. The institution itself was also reviewed. The department of Psychiatry will be reviewed again in 2009.
How does the program ensure that residents will have adequate time for studying outside of their clinical duties?
Education of residents, both through clinical and didactic training, is a priority in our program.
Throughout their training, residents are required to attend a weekly 4-hour seminar with the other members of their residency class. Staff physicians conduct lectures during this time, and residents follow a curriculum of reading assignments. Seminars are "protected time" for the residents, during which clinical duties are suspended and covered by staff.
In addition, the residents conduct a board review course twice a month. During this time, residents are given an opportunity to review board-style questions and discuss with their peers.
In order to prepare for the oral portion of Board Exams, residents are required to participate in mock orals throughout their final three years of training. An environment similar to the actual oral board exam is simulated and conducted by staff physicians.
Finally, the quality of life provided by our program allows residents adequate free time to study independently.
What is night call like?
Residents take home call in our program, which allows them to be away from the hospital when they are not involved in patient care.
On call, the resident is responsible for seeing patients in the Emergency Department at Scott & White and for direct admissions from surrounding hospitals to the Inpatient Psychiatric Ward at Scott & White. On average, residents see six to seven patients per night. Our residents find this to be busy enough to provide ample experience with patients, without compromising patient care or the resident's education.
Residents are on-call with a staff physician and are required to call that staff to discuss each patient they see at night. Staff are always willing to come to the hospital to see a patient with the resident, but rarely need to do so.
Residents do not have psychiatry call the first six months as they are on their non-psychiatry rotations. Residents start psychiatry rotations in January of their intern year.
For the first 12 months, residents take approximately 3.5 calls per month. Then for the next 12 months, they take 2.5 calls per month. Residents are finished with call after six months of the PGY3 year.
Weekend rounds are conducted by the staff and resident on call that weekend day, which means residents have all weekends off, unless they are assigned to a call-day weekend.
Because they are often busy during call, residents are allowed a post call day, which begins at 8 a.m. the morning after call. This opportunity to sleep, study, spend time with family and run errands, greatly enhances the resident's quality of life.
With rotations at hospitals in surrounding areas, how much traveling is a resident actually asked to do?
Eighty-five percent of a resident's required experience in this program occurs in the city of Temple, primarily at Scott & White Hospital.
During the course of four years (48 months), a resident will spend six months at a surrounding hospital or clinic. Each of these rotations is located approximately 30 minutes from Temple. Residents are reimbursed gas mileage for their daily drive.
What kinds of practices do your residents join after graduation?
Because they are exposed to numerous settings during residency, our residents are attracted to a variety of practice settings, including private practice, academics, public mental health and care of veterans, among others. Over the past five years, 30 percent of the residents have pursued fellowship training after residency.
What are the advantages of living and working in Temple?
Although it is located in a relatively small town of 55,000 people, Scott & White Hospital serves a much larger region of 200,000 people.
Residents in our department are exposed to a diverse patient population. Through the Mental Health Clinic at Scott & White, they see privately insured patients, as well as those with Medicare and Medicaid.
Residents also see indigent patients through their work in the Emergency Department, Central Texas Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) and Homeless Services in Austin.
In addition, our residents are exposed to active duty military patients through a rotation at Darnall Army Medical Center, located on the largest Army base in the world, Fort Hood.
Finally, residents gain a great deal of experience working with military veterans through their work at the VA hospitals both in Temple and in Waco.
Residents in our program enjoy this diverse patient population without the complexities of big city life. Busy residents greatly appreciate a short commute to work (10 minutes for most), without significant traffic.
The crime rate in Temple is low and most families feel comfortable sending their children to public schools. Because cost of living is relatively low and the real estate market is flourishing, many residents were able to purchase homes at the beginning of their residency.
For those who enjoy the advantages of larger cities, Austin (1 hour), Dallas (2 hours), San Antonio (2 ½ hours) and Houston (3 hours) are easily reached. Airports are located in these cities, as well as in Killeen, just 30 minutes away.
The advantages of life in Temple, paired with the diverse patient population, make our residents feel that they have the "best of both worlds" here at Scott & White.
What changes do you anticipate in your program over the next few years?
In 2007 we increased the number of residents in each class to five. As the program expands, we anticipate more involvement in the care of veterans through the Central Texas VA Hospital in Temple and at the Waco VA Hospital. We do not, however, anticipate major changes in the workload or call schedules for our residents.
Are residents required to do research?
Residents in our department are encouraged, but not required, to do research during their training. For those who are interested, there are many opportunities for research with staff at both Scott & White and at Central Texas VA Hospital. Several staff members and residents are currently involved in ongoing research projects.
Will I have the opportunity to teach medical students?
Scott & White serves as the teaching institution for all third and fourth year medical students and some first and second year medical students at Texas A&M College of Medicine.
Residents play an important role in teaching students, especially during their third year psychiatry rotation. Medical students take call with residents and work with them in a variety of patient care settings. Interested residents have the opportunity to teach lectures as well.
How successful are your residents at passing the Board Exam after residency?
Of those who have been out of training long enough to have taken both parts of the Board exam, 93 percent of our former residents have passed Part One, and 80 percent have passed Part Two of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. These numbers are well above the national pass rate.
Are fellowships available at Scott at White?
Our program offers a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which was recently reviewed and given full accreditation until next review in 2009.
Residents who are interested can transfer into this two-year program after their third year of training in the Adult Psychiatry residency. This, in effect, shortens a six year program into a five year experience.
The teaching staff in our Department has been fellowship trained in a variety of specialties, including Geriatrics, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Forensics.
Residents are also taught by psychologists with special interest in such fields as substance abuse, grief and cognitive behavioral therapy.
How much emphasis does the program place on psychotherapy?
The curriculum and focus of our program strikes a balance between biological and psychodynamic psychiatry. During the course of their training, residents are required to gain hands-on experience in several forms of therapy including psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, supportive and couples therapy.
For each therapy patient, residents are assigned a staff supervisor, with whom they spend an hour a week. During supervision, residents review videotapes of their sessions and discuss issues that are relevant to therapy.
As a part of their reading curriculum, residents are also exposed to theories of classic and more modern psychotherapists.
Can my spouse find employment and educational opportunities?
There are numerous educational opportunities for spouses in the Central Texas area. These include Temple College, The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (15 minutes away, in Belton) and the University of Central Texas (30 minutes away, in Killeen). Larger universities in the area include Baylor University (30 minutes away, in Waco) and the University of Texas in Austin, an hour drive from Temple.
Employment can be found in a variety of different areas. Positions are available in education, medical fields, business and manufacturing in the Temple area.
Many spouses of Scott & White residents are employed in the area closer to Austin which includes thriving communities such as Georgetown and Round Rock, located approximately 45 minutes from Temple.
What about moonlighting?
Residents are currently moonlighting with their institutional license at the Temple VA doing C&P exams which take about two hours and pay $150 per exam. Once residents receive their state license, there are opportunities to moonlight at Austin State Hospital and Timberlawn Hospital in Dallas.
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