The curriculum for the General Psychiatry Residency Program at Wake Forest School of Medicine is carefully designed to allow residents to establish a well-rounded foundation in psychiatry by offering a wide variety of learning experiences.
Wake Forest provides the most robust and well-rounded training experience in our region by exposing residents to a breadth of educational opportunities and clinical rotations that are second to none!
We are proud to have a dedicated and experienced faculty that pushes our residents toward excellence while remaining approachable and encouraging. Faculty frequently spend time with residents in their homes or at other outings in the community. This family-oriented atmosphere leads to healthy departmental relationships and life-long mentoring opportunities.
Clinical Rotations
Our residents gain the core competencies of clinical psychiatry by rotating through an array of faculty-designed clinical experiences broken into 13 four-week blocks each academic year.
Intern year finds our residents learning the foundations of psychiatric care during six months on the Adult Inpatient Psychiatry unit at the Sticht Center on the Wake Forest Baptist Hospital campus. This newly-renovated, 24-bed facility provides a safe and secure environment to learn psychopharmacology and various other aspects of inpatient care. Our inpatient medical director is seasoned psychiatrist, Dr. James Kimball.
Medicine and Neurology
During the PGY 1 year, residents complete foundational training in internal medicine and neurology across two complementary clinical settings.
Internal Medicine – W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center
Residents complete their internal medicine rotations at the W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center in Salisbury, NC. This historic and beautifully maintained campus serves more than 287,000 veterans in the region and offers a rich environment for learning complex medical care. Our strong partnership with the VA provides residents with exposure to high quality, veteran centered medicine and access to innovative clinical practices.
Neurology – Outpatient and Inpatient Experiences
Neurology training is intentionally split to provide both breadth and depth:
- Outpatient Neurology (1 month) Residents spend one month in outpatient neurology, gaining experience with ambulatory evaluation and management of common and complex neurologic conditions.
- Inpatient Neurology – Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (1 month) The second neurology month is completed on the inpatient neurology service at the main Baptist Medical Center. PGY 1 residents work side by side with neurology residents, fostering strong interdisciplinary relationships and collaborative learning across the two specialties. This experience builds confidence in managing acute neurologic presentations and strengthens communication between psychiatry and neurology teams.
Emergency Medicine
Our interns spend one block in the Wake Forest Emergency Department providing care for medically oriented patients. ED upper-level residents and faculty teach our residents the skills to stabilize, triage, and transfer patients to the necessary level of care. Our ED has one of the few Level 1 Trauma designations in the state and also works closely with our accredited chest pain and stroke centers.
Night Float
Night Float residents cover the hospital from 8pm to 8am Monday through Friday. Although this rotation may sound intimidating, it need not. Our residency program has an excellent onboarding program for our interns. Before residents begin their Night Float shifts, they have 3 months of buddy call with one of our experienced upper-level residents. Additionally, a second resident is always available in-house until midnight. Our residents consistently report that following this rotation they feel more prepared to be autonomous providers!
Telepsychiatry
For the better part of the last decade, Wake Forest Baptist has proven its leadership in developing and delivering Telepsychiatry services to all 5 hospitals in our current network. Our residents learn from the best clinicians and IT specialists in the business of telemedicine as we work to expand psychiatry’s reach to underserved populations.
As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded in February and March of 2020, our department led the way in the conversion of 100% of our outpatient services to virtual visits. We continue to have contingency plans in place for inpatient and outpatient psychiatry services to go virtual should this be necessary do to a coronavirus surge.
JT Clinics
In 2012 Wake Forest made the decision to move our outpatient psychiatry operations to our current home on Jonestown Road. Our patients love the ease of parking, and our residents love the McKay’s Used Books next door. On the Jonestown (JT) Clinics rotations, PGY-1 & PGY-2 residents get their first experiences in Outpatient Psychiatry. Residents are able to select clinic rotations based on their interests in the field, including Women’s Mental Health, University Mental Health, and Wake Forest Student Health to name a few. There are also opportunities to attend group therapy meetings through our Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program.
Consult-Liaison Psychiatry
Our Consult-Liaison services have long been one of the great strengths of our training program and our department. These rotations focus on caring for patients with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions. Through this service line we offer our hospital system emergency department, medical floor, and telepsychiatry consult services with in-depth supervision by C/L fellowship trained faculty.
Child Inpatient Psychiatry
Wake Forest Baptist Hospital has long been respected as one of the great Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training sites in the Southeast. Residents work along-side our Child and Adolescent Fellows and ABPN-boarded child faculty to deliver inpatient care to patients under 18 years of age in our brand-new C&A inpatient unit on the main campus. This is an excellent opportunity for residents considering a C&A fellowship to test their calling and hone their skills.
PGY 3: Full Year Outpatient Continuity & Specialty Clinics
During the PGY 3 year, residents transition fully into outpatient psychiatry, serving as the primary psychiatrist for a diverse panel of patients while gaining broad exposure across multiple specialty clinics. In addition to general adult psychiatry, every resident rotates through a curated set of subspecialty experiences designed to build confidence in complex, modern psychiatric care.
Specialty Outpatient Clinics
All PGY 3 residents rotate through multiple high yield specialty clinics, including:
• Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Training in evidence based care for opioid use disorder, including buprenorphine management and group based recovery models.
• Women’s Mental Health Clinic Focused experience in perinatal psychiatry, reproductive mental health, and gender specific treatment considerations.
• Neuromodulation Clinic Hands on exposure to TMS, ECT, esketamine administration, and evaluation of patients for interventional psychiatric treatments.
• Neurobehavioral Clinic Evaluation and management of cognitive disorders, neuropsychiatric syndromes, and complex behavioral presentations.
• Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic Outpatient care for older adults with mood disorders, cognitive decline, late life anxiety, and complex medical comorbidity.
• Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic Experience with youth presenting with mood, anxiety, neurodevelopmental, and behavioral disorders, supervised by fellowship trained faculty.
• Pre Surgical Evaluation Clinic Psychiatric assessments for patients undergoing procedures such as bariatric surgery, transplant evaluation, and other medically complex interventions.
• Student Mental Health Clinics Dedicated rotations serving students at Wake Forest University and the UNC School of the Arts, focusing on emerging adult mental health, academic stress, identity development, and crisis management.
PGY 4: Advanced Rotations & Specialized Longitudinal Tracks
The PGY 4 year is structured to help senior residents transition confidently toward independent practice. Training combines block rotations with longitudinal outpatient tracks, allowing residents to refine advanced clinical skills while developing leadership and supervisory abilities.
Block Rotations: Functioning as a Junior Attending
During PGY 4 block rotations, residents step into a junior attending role, managing clinical services with increased autonomy and responsibility. These rotations are intentionally designed to strengthen independent decision making and prepare residents for post graduation practice.
Key elements include:
- Autonomy in Clinical Care Senior residents lead patient evaluations, treatment planning, and disposition decisions with attending support available as needed.
- Supervisory Skill Development PGY 4 residents mentor and guide junior residents and medical students, gaining experience in teaching, feedback, and team leadership.
- Service Management Opportunities to oversee workflow, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and manage higher acuity or complex cases.
- Professional Identity Formation The junior attending structure helps residents build confidence, refine judgment, and transition toward independent psychiatric practice.
Longitudinal Outpatient Tracks
Alongside block rotations, PGY 4 residents participate in specialized year long outpatient experiences that provide sustained mentorship and focused expertise. Tracks include:
- Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)
- Psycho Oncology
- Women’s Mental Health
- Student Mental Health (Wake Forest University & UNC School of the Arts)
These longitudinal clinics allow residents to deepen subspecialty skills, follow patients over time, and develop advanced proficiency in areas aligned with their career goals.
Neuromodulation
Neuromodulation is a cornerstone of the treatment services offered within our health system. Patients who require urgent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) often receive their initial treatment within 24 hours of evaluation, providing residents with exposure to timely, high-acuity clinical care.
Residents gain extensive experience in neuromodulation through participation in ECT services across multiple clinical sites. All PGY-4 residents complete a dedicated ECT rotation and obtain ECT certification as part of their training. In addition to hands-on experience performing ECT, residents participate in a specialized outpatient neuromodulation clinic where they evaluate and screen candidates for ECT and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), develop treatment recommendations, and monitor patients’ clinical response and progress throughout the course of treatment.
Didactic Curriculum and Education Hours
Our Didactic Curriculum consists of two parts:
- Crash Courses run for the first 12 weeks of each educational year (prior to the PRITE) and provide residents with on overview of the highest yield information in psychiatry. A specific focus is given to DSM-5 checklists and psychopharmacology to provide a firm foundation for more in depth study.
- Block Courses run on a 2-year schedule and provide a comprehensive look at specific psychiatric areas of study. Most block will run from 4-6 weeks with longer periods of time devoted to more complex topics.
Internal Moonlighting Opportunity (Starting PGY‑3)
Residents in good academic and professional standing may participate in internal moonlighting beginning in the PGY‑3 year. These opportunities allow senior residents to expand clinical experience, build confidence in independent practice, and supplement income while working within familiar Wake Forest clinical settings.
Moonlighting is fully voluntary and designed to support resident growth without compromising wellness or education.
Research Opportunities
Research is an important part of our residency program and gives residents an opportunity to explore topics that are both important to the field of psychiatry and applicable to their own interests. Our residents are encouraged to work with faculty members or develop their own projects as their interests and time permit.