Hospital Rotation

Howard University Hospital

• The Howard University Hospitals Psychiatric Ward is a voluntary unit with patients who have varying mental health concerns ranging from major depression to acute paranoid schizophrenia.

• The hospital rotation is 6 hours a week, for four months and takes place on the inpatient psychiatry ward.

• As an intern on Howard University Hospital Psychiatric Ward, interns are afforded the opportunity to gain exposure to an additional mental health care system through a close working relationship with psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric residents, nursing staff, medical students, and patients.

• Interns take part in Grand Rounds with the entire psychiatric team, and if desired, they have the opportunity to conduct structured individual interviews.

• Interns also conduct a Yalom-based psychotherapy group with a licensed psychologist. This group frequently allows for the patients to alleviate stress and anxiety related to being on a hospital unit. The group has a rapid change in group composition due to the patients length of treatment. Often times the group consist of a diverse patient population with regards to psychopathology, age, race, gender, etc. Many times, exposure to the group are patients first experience with talk therapy. During this process interns assist patients in seeing that they are not alone in their treatment and that within the group process many of them can be a benefit to each other.

• Interns are provided direct supervision with regards to their participation in the group. Each supervision session is coupled with pertinent Yalom-based theoretical and technique based readings.