Psychiatry
Residency

Applying to the Psychiatry Residency Program

Berkshire Medical Center’s Psychiatry Residency Program participates in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). This service is provided by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and streamlines the residency application process.

• ERAS applications are reviewed on a rolling basis from the date on which they become complete
• Only applications completed by November 1 will be reviewed
• To complete your ERAS application, you will need:
  • A Personal Statement
  • A Dean’s Letter (MSPE)
  • Transcript
  • 3 letters of recommendation
  • USMLE Step 1 and 2 or COMLEX Level 1 and 2 scores
• Completed applications are reviewed and qualified applicants are identified based on academic performance; USMLE and COMLEX Level 1 & 2 scores; evidence of personal qualities of compassion, collaboration, diligence, and curiosity; letters of recommendation; and clinical experience

Berkshire Medical Center’s Psychiatry Residency Program:

• Prioritizes candidates who have graduated from medical school within the past 5 years
• Recruits candidates who are graduates of approved medical schools in the United States or Canada or graduates of foreign medical schools with a valid ECFMG certificate.
• Prioritizes candidates with 3 months of US clinical experience
• Offers visas: Currently J-1
• Requires Virtual Interviews

Essential Functions

Residents in our program work & learn in a variety of settings and clinical roles. Essential job functions of a resident physician’s role in our residency program include the ability without an intermediary to:

• Take a history and perform a physical examination of patients.
• Communicate with patients and staff, verbally and otherwise in a manner that exhibits good professional judgment and is appropriate for the professional setting.
• Read charts, monitors, and other sources of clinical information.
• Complete appropriate medical records and documents and plans according to protocol and in a complete and timely manner.
• Possess sufficient sensory and motor function to elicit information from patients by palpation, auscultation, percussion and other diagnostic maneuvers.
• Be able to execute motor movements reasonably required to provide general care and emergency treatment to patients.
• Perform all job functions while dressed in protective clothing required for clinical duties, including tolerating a mask, gown, and gloves.
• Move throughout the Medical Center to address routine and emergent patient care issues and to attend required educational programs.
• Work shifts of varying lengths and schedules including daytime, evening, & overnight clinical shifts.
• Fulfill backup and on-call duties as scheduled.
• Provide care at all clinical sites, including Berkshire Medical Center, our Ambulatory clinic, and other affiliated practices of BMC (the Cancer Center, etc..).
• Utilize a computer for medical record review, documentation, decision support, research, and education in an efficient and timely fashion.
• Possess the emotional health required for full use of their intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment and the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to the diagnosis and care of patients.
• Have the emotional maturity to self-assess, know own limitations and seek advice or counseling in situations that might impair own learning or performance in the care of patients, and to proactively seek appropriate treatment.

Rotation Summary

First Year:
Four blocks of internal medicine; two blocks of neurology, one block of substance use disorders, and six blocks of inpatient psychiatry.

Second Year:
2.5 blocks each of: inpatient psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, the Partial Hospitalization Program, and Youth IOP/child ED.

Third Year:
Third year is fully devoted to outpatient psychiatry and provides training in adult, child, adolescent and geriatric psychiatry.

Fourth Year:
Fourth year residents have a three-month 2/3-time requirement to serve as a Junior Attending on an acute service (ED, CL, or inpatient units) as well as a requirement to continue with a minimum of 2 long-term psychotherapy cases.

The remainder of the PGY 4 year is elective and includes the option for a one-month away elective. We offer a broad range of options including inpatient psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, outpatient work in a community mental health center, outpatient behavioral health integration, employee assistance, college mental health, substance use treatment, PHP, Youth IOP, group psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, ECT, scholarly activity including clinical research, and emergency psychiatry.

Past residents have built PGY 4 years which have included: grant-funded public health implementation programs in SAMHSA/MA DPH best practices in suicide prevention, a Massachusetts Health Policy Commission funded telepsychiatry behavioral health integration in primary care, work with an opiate use disorders innovative bridging program; performance improvement initiatives, sleep disorders, pain and co-morbid psychiatric disorders, advanced training in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders, advanced training in dynamic psychotherapy, and advanced training in substance use disorder treatment.

Seminars:
There is a rich Wednesday afternoon didactic curriculum of seminars taught throughout the four years that both meet and surpass the program requirements for certification in psychiatry.

The program also offers yoga-mindfulness training, a focus on resilience and self-care, extensive training in alliance formation and the psychiatric interview, worldview and spirituality seminars and a host of other offerings that help the psychiatric residents develop as grounded clinicians, teachers, and leaders.

Salary & Education Benefits

Salary for Academic Year 2024-2025

• PGY-1: $68,078
• PGY-2: $70,741
• PGY-3: $73,632
• PGY-4: $75,586

Educational Benefits Effective July 1st of each academic year, and subject to annual revision, the following allowances are available to all interns and residents for: books, journals, medical software, other educational resources, and professional society dues.

• PGY-1 $500 per year
• PGY-2 $500 per year
• PGY-3 $500 per year
• PGY-4 $1000 per year
• PGY-5 $1000 per year

In the final qualifying year for specialty board examinations, each resident shall also be granted an additional $1,000 for a Board Review Course approved by the individual resident’s program director. This allowance may not be used to pay for fees to sit for the Board examinations. Allowances may not be carried over from one year to the next.

A complete Board Review Course is provided on-site in the PGY-3 year for Internal Medicine residents.

General Benefits

Medflex:
Berkshire Medical Center’s flexible benefit program includes health insurance options, dental insurance options, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, long and/or short term disability insurance, health care and dependent care spending accounts on a tax free basis, and spouse and child term life insurance on an after-tax basis. The flexible benefit program provides dollars provided by BMC to be applied toward the purchase of benefits on a pre-tax basis, or a lesser sum to be taken as taxable cash if your spouse provides health insurance for you from another source. The dollars, if utilized for health insurance, include 90% of the cost of individual coverage or 75% of family coverage based on Network Blue New England. Benefit dollars are provided to partially cover dental insurance premiums, and to fully cover the cost of the long-term disability (50% option).

Health Care Spending:
Accounts allow you to contribute pre-tax money weekly for health care expenses not covered by health insurance plans. It can add tax savings to the protection you receive from our medical and dental plans.

Dependent Care Spending:
Accounts let you pay your dependent care fees on a pre-tax basis, as long as the care makes it possible for you to work.

Basic Life Insurance:
A term life insurance is provided, paid in full by BMC covering one times your annual salary, effective upon date of hire.

Uniforms:
White coats and scrubs and laundry of these garments will be provided.

Professional Liability:
Liability insurance is provided for house officers free-of-charge during the term of the contract. Coverage pertains to in-hospital activities only. Limits are stated in contract between BMC and the Berkshire Insurance Company. Tail coverage is included in this policy.

Registration Fees:
Registration fees for temporary licenses are covered for house officers who are not permanently licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Vacations: Each house officer is entitled to four (4) weeks of vacation with pay each year.

Outcomes

Recent graduates who have been interested in further fellowship training have gone on to programs including Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Yale, Sloan-Kettering–Cornell, Emory and the University of Massachusetts Medical School to name a few.

Our graduates who have been interested in fellowship training study child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, public psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, geriatric psychiatry and sleep disorders. Others have assumed leadership roles and/or clinical practice in statewide public psychiatry programs, prestigious medical centers, community hospitals and private practice settings.