Residents Respond to Frequently Asked Questions
2012-2013
We posed a group of Frequently Asked Questions to our current residents and received many candid responses. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact the
Department of Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and we will refer you to someone who can provide additional information.
What made you decide to come to Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA)?
How are your fellow residents? The attendings you work with?
What do you like to do for fun? Is there actually any time to pursue outside interests?
What research opportunities are there?
How are your didactics? Psychopharmacology training? Psychotherapy training?
How responsive are the directors to resident concerns?
What is call like? Can you describe your paid Back Up Call?
What do you think are the strengths of CHA? Its weaknesses?
What made you decide to come to Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA)?
After rotating at CHA as a medical student, I knew that the CHA training program had a truly unique combination of strengths that I wanted to continue to learn from as a resident -- an amazing breadth of exposure to a diverse group of patients (both in diagnosis and in demographic background), a commitment to underserved patient populations, an impressive level of academic and intellectual rigor, and an opening, welcoming, and friendly work environment.
- Amber Frank, PGY-4
M.D., Harvard Medical School
I was so excited about CHA's community-based approach, emphasis on psychotherapy training, and warm welcoming environment. All of those characteristics have proven to be true!
- Jason Lambrese, PGY-3
M.D., Brown Medical School
The wonderful and diverse population of the staff and docs here, as well as the resources available through the Harvard system.
- Katie Kessler, PGY-4,
D.O., University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
I was attracted by what I understood to be CHA's mission: academic medicine in the service of the underserved. Having spent time at CHA as a med student, I had been exposed to the high quality psychiatry (and medicine) teaching and felt this would be a place where I could really learn my craft.
- Renee Witlen, PGY-3
M.D., Harvard Medical School
I chose CHA because I looking for a program with a public health and community mission, in-depth psychotherapy training, strong medical training and collaboration, strong collaboration with psychology and social work and the flexibility for self directed learning. I feel incredibly lucky to have had all of these things and many wonderful mentors along the way!
- Katherine Clark, PGY-4
M.D., University of Vermont
I was drawn to CHA as a result of their mission to care for the underserved, which was extremely apparent to me when I came here for an away elective as a medical student. All the residents I encountered seem genuinely happy to be at CHA, displayed a wide range of interests, and placed an importance on strong academics and learning while still maintaining life balance.
- Joanna MacLean, PGY-3
M.D., Brown Medical School
How are your fellow residents? The attendings you work with?
I LOVE my fellow residents-- I feel so fortunate to have matched with my class! While we are all so different in our backgrounds, interests, and life paths, we all get along so well, which I think stems from our shared values and mission that drew us to this program. They have been an incredible source of support throughout residency, as well as become wonderful friends outside of work.
- Joanna MacLean, PGY-3
M.D., Brown Medical School
My fellow residents are a phenomenally fun, intelligent and outgoing group of people. Given that we come from a variety of different backgrounds, it's amazing how well we got along from the beginning. We try to get together regularly outside of work, including monthly potlucks at each others' homes. The PGY2-4s have also been great about giving us advice about residency and Cambridge life in general, both through our "Buddies" program (which pairs each PGY-1 up with a PGY-2), and otherwise. The attending docs I've encountered so far have been very devoted to resident education. Each doc has taken the time to discuss cases with and offer resident-centered teaching points. And I've even met with them outside of work (e.g. over breakfast) to get some informal lectures on particular topics (e.g. antipsychotics). I think this makes for a relaxed but very effective teaching environment all around.
- Tauheed Zaman, PGY-3
M.D., Tufts Medical School
One of the biggest draws to CHA for me was the quality of the residents. Not only are my fellow residents highly competent and skilled at psychiatry, but they are just great people to have as your colleagues and friends. We are a tight knit group, and I know I can turn to them for anything.
- Gillian Sowden, PGY-1
M.D., Harvard Medical School
Everybody at CHA is dedicated to the population we serve, interested in improving patient care and resident experience, and supportive of each other. My fellow residents have proven to be some of the most amazing people that I have met -- and they're a lot of fun to be with! Running into a fellow resident in the hallway always puts a smile on my face.
- Jason Lambrese, PGY-3
M.D., Brown Medical School
Becoming a psych resident, I was worried about my interactions with other fields including internal medicine. I have been very impressed with how medicine, psychiatry and transitional year interns all work together as one class. I know every intern by first name, and CHA has done a lot to encourage these relationships. Additionally, because of the rich history of psychiatry here at CHA, psychiatry interns are very well respected by the attendings.
- Kimberly Leventhal, PGY-3
M.D., University of Massachusetts
What do you like to do for fun? Is there actually any time to pursue outside interests?
There is definitely time to pursue outside interests during a number of non-medicine months in the first year. For fun, I read, I run and otherwise try to get exercise, I spend time with my husband and with local friends, and I head out of town for the occasional weekend-- New York City and almost all of New England are in a 3-4 hour driving range.
- Renee Witlen, PGY-3
M.D., Harvard Medical School
CHA does a wonderful job of recognizing the need for the residents to have healthy, balanced lives outside of work in order to properly care for our patients. I have been able to take advantage of the many activities locally in Cambridge as well as in Boston.
- Jason Lambrese, PGY-3
M.D., Brown Medical School
Though it varies by rotation, I've generally had lots of time to keep up with outside interests. I play team trivia at a local bar, go kayaking/canoeing/hiking, and have held my own in keeping up with friends who are local foodies and movie buffs. Boston and Cambridge offer endless opportunities to explore new cuisine (Brazilian and Tibetan restaurants are recent favorites) and museums, art shows, festivals, theater performances, etc. It's also a fairly "young" city, and I've found it's very easy to meet other young professionals in the area through local bar events, volunteer opportunities, etc. Outside the city proper, I've enjoyed day-trips out to the Boston Harbor Islands and Cape Cod during the summer, and heading to nearby New Hampshire and Vermont slopes for skiing in the winter time.
- Tauheed Zaman, PGY-3
M.D., Tufts Medical School
One of the (many) reasons I love this program is because of its emphasis on work-life balance. I think there is a general understanding among residents/attendings that we are focused and work hard during work hours, but make sure to set aside time for our other interests during our free time. I managed to plan a wedding and get married during my intern year, take up pottery during second year, and I look forward to seeing what new interests I develop over the course of this next year!
- Joanna MacLean, PGY-3
M.D., Brown Medical School
What research opportunities are there?
There are an unbelievable number of research opportunities available here, and residents are more than welcome to participate – or develop research projects of their own – if you are so inclined. At a recent Harvard-wide Psychiatry Research Day, a greater percentage of residents from CHA presented research as compared to all of the other Harvard-affiliated psychiatry programs. This is not what I would have expected based upon what I heard through the residency “grapevine” during my fourth year of medical school, and I was glad to know that research has a strong place here for those interested. I am currently working on two projects in particular and am excited about them.
- Jeffrey Eisen, PGY-4
M.D., University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Since CHA is a Harvard affiliated residency, there are lots of opportunities to do research within the Harvard system. The CHA residency also offers a good amount of elective time that can be dedicated to research, such that you have protected time to work on your projects. I used some elective time during my PGY-1 year to work with a researcher at MGH on a research project that will hopefully result in a first author publication.
- Gillian Sowden, PGY-1
M.D., Harvard Medical School
I was able to do a research project through the Behavioral Neurology rotation at McLean Hospital. They can mentor you for a project of your choice, and help you write and publish a paper from start to finish. This is an amazing opportunity and really helped me to begin to understand the academic process involved in research and publishing one's work.
- Katie Kessler, PGY-4
D.O., University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
How are your didactics? Psychopharmacology training? Psychotherapy training?
We have two psychopharm clinics in the PGY-3 year that both incorporate direct attending collaboration/observation for your intakes, and also weekly supervision, with just one or two other residents to review your cases. I was worried about the rumors I heard that CHA is “weak on pharm” but I got terrific first-hand experience and teaching through my clinics and rotations at CHA and throughout the Harvard system, for example in a Consult-Liaison clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and in my PGY-4 year at the Harvard University Health Service for students. I also learned that CHA graduates regularly reported feeling better-trained than most of their colleagues in terms of their psychopharm knowledge. Also, the psychotherapy training is phenomenal here, and I stayed on at CHA for a psychotherapy fellowship because of this. By the time you graduate, you feel like you’ve been exposed to everything, and know how to handle just about anything (or at least know where to turn to for help)!
- Elisa Cheng, former CHA resident, now an attending in the CHA Outpatient Psychiatry Department
M.D., Harvard Medical School
How responsive are the directors to resident concerns?
Extremely responsive. The directors established an "open-door" policy during orientation, and this has continued throughout the year. They meet regularly with all PGY years to hear concerns and discuss solutions. Each director is also available for individual meetings, and we even have their cell phone numbers to reach them in case of emergencies. Both directors and the program coordinator are also extremely proactive about looking out for our interests, and advocate for us any time a concern comes up about scheduling, case load, etc. We provide constant feedback over different portions of the residency, from didactics to moonlighting schedules, and the integration of our solutions has allowed the program to constantly evolve for the better. And this makes for much happier residents!
- Tauheed Zaman, PGY-3
M.D., Tufts Medical School
What is call like? Can you describe your paid Back Up Call?
Call can be very busy but is an incredible learning experience. As the on-call resident, you are responsible for our Psychiatric Emergency Services (a freestanding Psych ED), consults from the medical floors, and coverage of the child and adult inpatient units. You always have back-up available in the form of a Senior On-Call and the paid Back Up Call pool (formerly known as the moonlighting pool) to help when volumes are high. During Back Up Call, you help fill in overnight on any cases that the primary resident on-call is too busy to cover, so responsibilities can be similar to those of the on-call resident. Back Up Call is voluntary and can be done from the PGY-2 year onward, after initial on-call training and approval from program leadership.
- Amber Frank, PGY-4
M.D., Harvard Medical School
(Click here for more information about call.)
What do you think are the strengths of CHA? Its weaknesses?
I think CHA's strengths are its commitment to the underserved and community medicine, as well as its wonderful and dedicated physicians, nurses, social workers and staff. I think that I would say both a strength and weakness of the program is the lack of structure around academic opportunities. If you are someone who works well without structure and is good at establishing connections and plans, then you will bask in the freedoms of this system. But if you need clearer directives and structure around this then it might not be the place for you.
- Katie Kessler, PGY-4
D.O., University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
More than anything else, especially from talking to my friends at other psychiatry programs, all programs have strengths and weaknesses, and the difference is if residents are honest about it when asked by applicants. People are very direct about strengths and weaknesses here, and I found that refreshing! What really stands out for me are the people at this organization, in all positions, that are so passionate about caring for our primary patient population, which is often one with limited access to care or is stigmatized in some way from a traditional healthcare system. I am proud to be surrounded by such incredible individuals. Some of the didactics could be revised based upon feedback that has been given about the subject matter and/or teaching style. I would also say that if someone wanted to do bench research, we don’t have wet labs for that purpose, but with some planning, access to other parts of the Harvard system would be possible.”
- Jeffrey Eisen, PGY-4
M.D., University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine