Welcome to the Forth Valley Psychiatry
Welcome to the Forth Valley Psychiatry training module
We are keen to provide you with a wide and varied experience, and hope that you find this placement improves your confidence and knowledge in psychiatry. Whichever specialty you choose in the future, you are likely to benefit from the experience in this placement. You will have exposure to a wide range of patients with mental health problems, and learn about bio-psycho-social model in considering a patient’s difficulties and treatment. You will have the opportunity to develop your communication skills whilst observing and conducting your own patient assessments. Gaining experience in communicating with a wide breadth of patients who have varying levels of communication difficulties.
Key Contacts
Dr Patrick Hughes – Consultant Psychiatrist / Psychiatry Educational Supervisor. patrick.hughes2@nhs.scot
Generic Undergraduate Teaching email fv.undergraduatemedicaleducation@nhs.scot
Medical Admin Team fv.psycdoctorscsd@nhs.scot
Dr Chandrahas Kondamuri & Dr Christine Torrance – Medical Student Liaison Resident Doctors. chandrahas.kondamuri@nhs.scot & christine.torrance@nhs.scot
Placement Details
At the start of your placement you will have an initial Forth Valley induction at the learning centre and you will receive the appropriate student passes for the mental health unit (MHU). Following this, you will have an initial meeting with a member of the team for an induction and a tour of the unit.
The MHU has 5 wards – 2 older adult (4 & 5), 2 general adult (2 & 3) and ward 1 – Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU). Please use the contacts above if you have any issues whilst on placement.
Your placement is for five weeks, with a range of experiences with general adult psychiatry, older adult psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), addictions and rehab. We encourage you to spend as much time with patients as possible. We believe that such patient contact is the best way to get a feel for the specialty, as well as developing your knowledge of mental health disorders and improving your communication skills.
There is an on call duty doctor (CT, F2 or GPST) each day and night who can be found in the doctor’s room. Speaking with the duty doctor (or the other junior doctors) is a good way to identify patients to talk to and they are happy to have case discussions afterwards.
At the bottom of your timetable you will see a list of consultant contact details, and information on when they have clinical commitments that would be beneficial for you to attend. Many of these are already timetabled for you, but if anything is cancelled or you find yourself with some free time, please consider linking in with one of these activities.
You will also have weekly supervision with Dr Hughes.
Assessment/tutorials
You will have your placement specific objectives as outlined by your University and we will provide teaching to ensure these are completed. These usually include performing a risk assessment and conducting an Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (ACE-III). As well as this you will be provided with a checklist of assessments/investigations to complete whilst on your placement which will give you a broad range of skills both applicable to the general doctor as well as psychiatrist.
As part of a new initiative Dr Hughes has arranged a weekly clinic in Woodlands Resource Centre (one student at a time) with supervision afterwards. This will involve supervised assessment of specifically selected outpatients in order to give you experience in psychiatric history taking, mental state examination and formulation.
Edinburgh University is organising a number of tutorials, which are online, for you to attend. These usually run on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Local psychiatric teaching occurs every second Thursday morning. There will also be a trainee-delivered programme of tutorials on a Thursday lunchtime (in person or on teams, and times may be adjusted to suit clinical demands).
If any issues or concerns arise during your placement, or you identify any specific learning needs then please get in touch with Dr Hughes or the medical student liaison resident doctors to discuss.