KieuHanh Nguyen, MD

My name is KieuHanh Nguyen, MD, and I’m a PGY-3 psychiatry resident. As part of our third-year curriculum, we get to experience outpatient psychiatry at two primary locations: LVHN Mental Health Clinic–17th Street and LVPG Adult and Pediatric Psychiatry Clinic–1259 Cedar Crest. These clinics each have their own diverse patient population with unique challenges. The staff at both clinics is wonderful and helps connect patients to a variety of resources to improve their mental health care. In addition to seeing patients for medication management, we also see some patients for therapy, which can be a mix of supportive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy or psychodynamic psychotherapy. We are expected to have five psychotherapy patients throughout the year. At the start of the year, we get one hour to see each patient, which gives us adequate time to acclimate to the outpatient setting. After the first three months, they transition us to 30-minute appointments that are interspersed with one-hour appointments. We get one hour to see therapy patients throughout the year.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, we work at the mental health clinic. The day typically starts at 8:30 a.m. and lasts until 4:30 p.m. I usually get to the clinic before that to review my patients’ charts if I didn’t get a chance to do it the day before. I would see the patient on my own, formulate a plan with the patient and discuss the plan separately with my attending in their office, then we both would return to my office to review the plan with the patient. After the patient leaves, I try my best to complete my note for that encounter prior to the next patient’s arrival. On Mondays, we have supervision with our clinic preceptor from 1:30-2:30 p.m. On Tuesdays, we have supervision from 3:30-4:30 p.m. During supervision, we discuss difficult patient cases or any educational topics of interest so that we all learn from each other.

On Wednesday mornings, we have psychodynamic psychotherapy supervision with Drs. Lewis and Marraccini from 8-10 a.m. We are typically split into groups of two, and each resident would discuss their psychodynamic psychotherapy patient for one hour while the other resident and the attending provide additional input. This supervision occurs at LVPG Consultation Liaison Psychiatry–1251 Cedar Crest. We then drive over to LVH–Muhlenberg to attend didactics from noon-4:30 p.m. The first two hours of didactics are typically lectures followed by an hour of board review and then an hour of group supervision with Dr. Martin (the first three Wednesdays of the month) or the chair of the department, Dr. Norris (the last Wednesday of the month).

On Thursdays and Fridays, we work at the LVPG Adult and Pediatric Psychiatry clinic. The day typically starts at 8 a.m. and lasts until 4 p.m. We also precept with our attending on every patient that we see. On Thursdays, we have CBT supervision with Drs. Carosella and Salas from 4-5 p.m. On Fridays, we have supervision from 4-5 p.m.

Our call during the third year is also unique. On Mondays through Thursdays, each PGY-3 psychiatry resident takes turns being on a telemedicine call overnight from our homes. Our class has four residents, so it works out nicely that we split up the four weeknights. We are on-call every fourth weekend from Friday at 4:30 p.m. until Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. for telemedicine. On Saturday and Sunday of those call weekends, we either work on the inpatient adult psychiatric unit during the first half of the third year or on the consult-liaison service during the second half of the third year.

I think all these experiences that we have during third year prepare us well for life after residency. Our attendings are super supportive and understand the importance of work-life balance, so I can still fit in any important appointments that I have throughout the year.