The ACLP recommends that all interviews for candidates applying in fall 2022 for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowships be done by virtual means. Both local and distant applicants should be interviewed by remote technology. The ACLP recommends against in-person interviews while the pandemic persists. There should be no in-person or second-look visits, but programs may schedule virtual events or tours. If these are offered, they should be offered to all applicants.
The ACLP joins the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training (AADPRT), the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), many other medical organizations, and most educational institutions in making this recommendation.
All-virtual interviewing was used in the fall 2020 and 2021 application cycles, and was very successful. Indeed, there appeared to be an increased diversity of applicants due to less constraint by travel expense.
The ACLP encourages all applicants to apply to their choice of programs while minimizing any possible health risks. We hope that in-person interviewing will again be feasible in next year’s application cycle.
We wish you the best of luck with your pursuit of fellowship training. We do assure you that a wide variety of programs, with different sorts of emphasis and features, in different areas of the US, will welcome your application.
A C-L psychiatrist, Samual Greenstein, MD, discusses the importance of fellowship training. He shares his path of working as an attending for several years before joining fellowship training. See his article here.
You can also view the 2021 webinar, Secrets of Applying to C-L Psychiatry Fellowships in 2021, here: https://youtu.be/dH5ZVPWVtP4 or click here to download the PowerPoint slides:
https://www.clpsychiatry.org/wp-content/uploads/Secrets-of-Applying-to-C-L-Psychiatry-Fellowships-in-2021-slides.pptx
Why Consider a C-L Psychiatry Fellowship?
Thanks to Terry Rabinowitz, MD, DDS, FACLP, former chair of the Academy’s Fellowship Education Subcommittee, for the answer to this question.
Consultation-liaison psychiatry (CLP) is that branch of psychiatry that deals with the understanding and advancement of medical science, education, and health care for persons with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions. It is also referred to as Hospital Psychiatry. Whatever its name, it is an exciting and gratifying psychiatry subspecialty that, given the direction medicine and medical care is heading in the U.S., will be an important way new psychiatrists will be able to play an active role in the comprehensive medical care of a large portion of the population.
Training in CLP currently follows completion of a General Psychiatry residency training program; CLP fellows typically spend one additional year in training, although some training programs include an optional additional year. There are now more than 70 ACGME-accredited CLP Fellowship training programs, with numbers steadily increasing. Satisfactory completion of a CLP fellowship qualifies each graduate to sit for the subspecialty board examination in CLP administered by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
There are many ways a specialist in CLP may be helpful to an in- or outpatient and to those caring for someone with comorbid psychiatric and medical or surgical conditions. Some examples include: treatment of delirium tremens in an elderly woman with unsuspected alcohol dependence who just received coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), consultation to an outpatient HIV/AIDS Clinic to help manage psychotropic medications for a patient about to begin a new antiretroviral regimen, co-treatment with the Maternal and Fetal Medicine Service of a young woman with bipolar disorder who is taking lithium for mania prophylaxis and who wishes to become pregnant, and inpatient consultation to the Oncology Service for a depressed middle-aged man with newly diagnosed, widespread pancreatic cancer.
C-L Psychiatry gives one the opportunity to “hold onto” a great deal of his or her medical and surgical training and to use it effectively and, in addition, the chance to work more closely with medical and surgical colleagues than is typically the case for most psychiatrists. It’s a great way to make a big difference in the lives of those with complicated medical or surgical conditions who are suffering emotionally, those in hospital whose behaviors place them or others at risk, and for those who care for them.
ACLP Residency Interviews: (embedded videos below)