Ever wondered what a typical day looks like for a psychiatry intern in our program? Here’s a glimpse into a rewarding, fast-paced, and collaborative day on one of our core 7N inpatient units.
The day begins early around 6:00-7:00am, with interns getting ready in their colorful scrubs and have breakfast. By 8:00am interns receive sign-out from the overnight team in the lounge, typically led by an upper-year resident. At 8:30am, the Physician of the Day (POD) reviews new referrals and admissions while the rest of the team revies charts and prepares for morning rounds. From 9:00-11:00am interns round-on patients with their attending, discussing assessments, adjusting medications, and planning discharges alongside a multidisciplinary team. Between 11:00am and 2:00pm, grab a well-earned coffee or sit down for lunch, finish notes, and make collateral calls to families. In the early afternoon, from 2:00-3:30pm, interns meet with their attendings to update care plans and often engage in informal teaching sessions with medical students. By 3:30pm, it’s time to prepare sign-out and update the POD with any important changes. At 5:00pm, the Short Call Intern and night resident take over the unit, and the intern typically takes on a new admission to close out the day.
On the psychiatry consult service, your day starts between 7:00-8:00am, when you’re assigned new consults. You’ll see both new and some follow-up patients before discussing them with the team during the morning huddle at 10:30am. Afterward, you’ll staff your cases with an attending, collaborate plans with primary teams, make collateral calls, and complete your documentation. your day typically ends between 3:30-4:00pm. This rotation helps you learn how to triage patients based on psychiatric urgency and work closely with medical teams to coordinate care. You’ll gain experience with common consults like agitation/delirium or capacity assessments, as well as less typical or complex psychiatric conditions.
On your off-service medical rotations, your day starts bright and early around 4:30-5:30am. You’ll arrive at the hospital between 5:30-6:00am to receive sign-out from the night team and begin seeing your assigned patients. Between 6:00-8:30am, you’ll independently preround-on your patients. gather relevant data and formulate your assessments and plans. This will be discussed with your senior residents and attending during treatment rounds. Much like the core inpatient rotation, you’ll be responsible for timely documentation, staying on top of tasks, and communicating important updates to your team. You’ll also carve out time for a quick break or lunch. Throughout the afternoon, you may check in on higher-acuity patients, follow up on labs or imaging, and connect with families either at the bedside or by phone. Your day typically wraps up between 4:00 and 5:30pm, after signing out your patients to the night team or covering senior. It’s a busy day, high-yield experience that builds your independence, efficiency, and confidence as a physician-in-training.
Additionally, your schedule will look different during rotations like Emergency Medicine or Neurology. In Emergency Medicine, you’ll work on a shift-based schedule, sometimes including evenings and weekends. On Neurology, you may rotate through either an outpatient clinic or an inpatient consult service, working closely with an assigned attending physician. These experiences offer valuable exposure to conditions such as epilepsy, stroke, and movement disorders, helping to deepen to your understanding of neuropsychiatric illness and its overlap with mental health.