How We Live

Wellness

The Department’s residents’ wellness committee gives continuous feedback to improve our wellness curriculum. It includes team activities, process groups and wellness educational didactics. Based on resident feedback, we recently introduced Balint groups in which residents discuss emotions triggered by an encounter with a client and reflect on its meanings to the client, resident provider, attending and the staff team. One of the most popular yearly activities is the resident retreat. This is a great opportunity for residents to visit popular places in New Mexico such as the immersive artistic experience at Meow Wolf!

A day in the life

PGY-1

"It’s Tuesday. I wake up at 6 am in my 2-story loft apartment in a gorgeous old brick building in downtown Albuquerque (housing is reasonably priced here). I arrive at the inpatient psychiatry ward at 8 am, and finish pre-rounding by 9:15 am. I spend about 5-10 minutes helping my med student prepare their presentation. Then we table round for an hour or two.  My attending, Dr. Rodriguez, is without exaggeration the nicest attending I’ve worked with.  She’s patient, quick to laugh, respectful and she puts everyone on the team at ease. She effortlessly weaves teaching into rounds without ever making me feel like I’ve missed something or made a mistake. After rounds we place orders, provide other care, and write our notes. I’m usually out by 5 pm (the absolute latest I stayed was 6:30 pm). I stop at my gym for an hour on the way home. Once home I make and eat dinner, spend an hour or two on one of my hobby projects, and then go to bed."

Nathan Rosecrans, MD, PGY-1

PGY-2

"Howdy ya’ll! I’m just starting my second year. As a second year, we spend two months on the Geriatrics Unit, getting exposure to ECT and TMS (if we choose). Much of the American population is aging, and we all should have some experience. Geriatrics is a field where you must make sure you’ve brushed up on your medicine skills because some of our patients need extra care and attention. Luckily, we work with a great medicine team and have APPs to help make sure everything is as it needs to be..." Read more

Abhinav Mishra, MD, PGY-2

PGY-3

"The third year of training in our program is a significant transition: After two years of predominately inpatient work, we find ourselves managing patients across multiple outpatient settings for the entirety of the year. While many of these patients are new, you will remember some from the inpatient units during your first few years as a resident. These patients helped to emphasize a shift in focus from acute risk management to long-term stability, tolerability of medications, and increased quality of life. Each week, we split our time between five different clinics - Adult (START and COPE), Substance Use (ASAP), Geriatric, and Child/Adolescent. Additionally, we have the opportunity to participate in psychotherapy sessions with multiple patients and meet weekly for supervision with faculty mentors that we have selected…" Read more

Zachery Tiger, MD, PGY-3

PGY-4

"The fourth year in any psychiatry residency program is the time when you effectively integrate and consolidate all your skills, knowledge, and expertise to fine-tune your professional identity. UNM supports this process."

"The flexibility in the rotation selection is supported by a variety of available focus areas. We have ten half days (1 slot is reserved for didactics) in one week, and each rotation is three months in length. Combining the rotations with the half days, allows the learner to have over 36 experience slots available throughout the PGY-4 year. These options can be at the UNMH and/or the VA health system. These slots can also be used to create a longitudinal continuity clinic in many areas that are too many to list…" Read more

Ali Nakip, MD, MEd, CEDS

Chief of Informatics and Quality, Resident PGY-4