Welcome to Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin! In just 10 years, the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences has developed one of the most innovative and dynamic residency programs in the country.
The Dell Med Psychiatry Residency delivers excellent clinical training that uniquely introduces residents to both outpatient psychotherapy and outpatient pharmacotherapy training during the second year. Moreover, the program offers four tracks enabling residents to cater their training to their personal areas of interest. Residency tracks include the physician-scientist (research) track, psychotherapy track, women’s mental health track and community psychiatry track.
Residents pursuing research training choose mentors not only from among Dell Medical School’s excellent faculty but from the faculty of UT Austin’s many nationally ranked graduate schools and graduate programs in Information Science (ranked #5 in US), Pharmacy (#6), Behavioral Neuroscience (#8), Social Work (#8), Artificial Intelligence (#9), Public Policy Analysis (#15), Psychology (#23), and Neuroscience (#35), etc.
Dell Med Psychiatry also offers ACGME approved fellowships in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Consult-Liaison Psychiatry (which also includes a Women’s Mental Health Track), Forensic Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry.
My greatest joy in serving as the director of residency education at Dell Med is being a member of a caring and accepting community. I am confident that, like me, you will feel welcome and valued as a member of our academic community should you choose to pursue training here at Dell Med.
I invite you to take a closer look and explore the many excellent opportunities available to you at Dell Med in addition to the quality of life you can enjoy while living in Austin, the live music capital of the world.
Hook ‘em!
D. Jeffrey Newport, M.D., M.S., MDiv
Director of Residency Education and
Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Women’s Health, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
Distinguished Teaching Professor, The University of Texas System
Chief Residents’ Welcome
Hailey Barab, D.O. and Alex Rasgon, M.D.
Welcome to the Psychiatry Residency at Dell Medical School! Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our program.
One of the things that drew us to Dell Med and continues to make us grateful to train here is the people. Our residents are genuinely supportive of one another, our faculty are deeply invested in our growth and there is a culture of collaboration that encourages us to ask questions, pursue new ideas and continually improve the program.
As a resident, you’ll train in a wide variety of clinical settings and work with diverse patient populations across Central Texas. Whether your interests are in community psychiatry, consultation-liaison, child and adolescent psychiatry, women’s mental health, forensic psychiatry, research or another area, you’ll find mentors who are eager to support your goals and help you build the career you envision.
Dell Med is also a place where resident voices matter. Many of the positive changes within our program have come directly from resident feedback, and there are countless opportunities to get involved in leadership, education, advocacy, quality improvement and curriculum development. We value innovation and are always looking for ways to better serve both our trainees and our patients.
Outside of work, our residency is a close-knit community. We celebrate each other’s milestones, spend time together outside the hospital and genuinely enjoy working alongside one another. Austin is an incredible place to call home, offering beautiful outdoor spaces, great food, live music, and countless opportunities to unwind and explore.
Thank you again for your interest in the Dell Med Psychiatry Residency. We look forward to meeting you during interview season and sharing more about our community.
From the Residents
I was drawn to Dell Medical School psychiatry for many reasons. There is a wide variety of patients seen by the Ascension Seton system as a whole; it doesn’t represent just one pocket of the population, which I felt would be good training for whatever my future job may hold. I also felt a welcoming sense of camaraderie among the residents; they support each other, help the team whenever necessary and are genuinely friends outside of work! And of course, who wouldn’t want to be in Austin and experience all that “keeps Austin weird?!” Best. City. Ever.
The schedule of an off-service internal medicine resident looks something like this:
- All teams, 5:45–7 a.m.: Arrive at Dell Seton Medical Center and read up on the overnight nursing events and morning labs on your patients (typically between three to six patients, depending on the team and the day).
- 7–7:15 a.m.: Meet in the doctor’s lounge for sign-out from the overnight cross-cover residents to hear about any acute issues that needed a physician’s attention over the last night.
- 7:15–8:30 a.m.: Pre-round on your patients.
- 8:30–9 a.m.: Quickly run the list with your upper-level resident, addressing any immediate issues and discussing plans.
- 9 a.m.–noon: Round with the attending physician.
- Noon–1 p.m.: Conference with a doctor from one of the many internal medicine subspecialties (and the free food never hurts).
- 1–4 p.m.: Complete floor work, meet with the multidisciplinary team to discuss discharge and social barriers, and admit any new patients your team receives.
- Non-call teams, 4–5 p.m.: Sign out your patients to the overnight cross-cover team so they’re prepared to answer any questions that arise.
- 5 p.m.: Your pager stops beeping! Head home!
- Call team (occurs every six days), 4–7 p.m.: Admit new patients: This can take a couple of extra hours to finish, depending on the timing of the admits.
- 8–9 p.m.: Sign out to the overnight cross-over team. Head home and sleep like a rock!
I was attracted to the program by its early exposure to psychotherapy, the opportunity to work at a psychiatric hospital and the variety of attendings. I really liked that the program placed value on training us in psychotherapy and encourages residents to use it in their practice. Working at Ascension and all the affilate sites, we get to see a higher volume of patients and a wider range of pathology. And of course, living in Austin has perks, too! It really makes a difference in resident life to live in a city with lots of fun things to do away from work.
What I like about the program: So far, I have enjoyed working with upper-levels, attendings and med students. Learning from everyone’s experiences and different approaches to psychiatric care has been very beneficial. I also feel I am at a program that values resident wellness and gives a lot of support to the residents. I have enjoyed working in the variety of clinic settings provided, i.e., Medical Park Tower, the Austin Outpatient Clinic of VA Central Texas and the Texas Child Study Center.
An average day as a PGY-2 is primarily in a clinic setting, seeing an average of six patients a day. The majority of the days are spent at Medical Park Tower. The schedule includes one full day of lectures, conferences and meetings, which is nice because we don’t travel a lot to different locations and can focus on academia. Call as a PGY-2 is all home call Monday through Sunday, 5 p.m.-8 a.m., receiving zero to three pages throughout the week for a total of six to seven weeks throughout the year.
I was interested in our program for a few reasons, but the biggest that stood out to me was that there was a broad amount of training diversity that was comparable with other large psychiatric residencies in the country, but with a smaller, more close-knit feel. The fact that we have a dedicated inpatient psychiatric hospital that serves as a safety-net hospital and acute substance detoxification facility, two medical hospitals, electroconvulsive therapy, child and adolescent inpatient and outpatient clinics, geriatric clinic, etc., was impressive. I felt like I would be able to get a comprehensive, well-rounded training education here, and the program being in Austin didn’t hurt, either.
My typical day on inpatient psychiatry starts when I get to the hospital at about 7-7:15 a.m. and check in with my intern and medical students, then check in with the nursing and social work staff. Morning report with the interns and medical students is at 8:30 a.m., and then we have hospital huddle at 9 a.m. We meet with our attending at 9:15 a.m. and then do multidisciplinary rounds, see follow-ups and write orders or do discharges. We see new patients during the morning if possible, but we often use the afternoon to see and assess new patients, accept new patients for admissions and work on discharge planning, obtaining collateral or teaching the students and interns. I have clinic in the afternoon twice a week, and we are usually done by 5 p.m.