Resident Life

Background:
My name is Angelo Chaia, and I grew up (mostly) in the great state of New Jersey. My brother and I were born to our loving parents—my father being from Lebanon and my mother from our home state. After living briefly in Saudi Arabia, my family moved to the United States and settled in the land of pork-roll and gas attendants. Though it seemed too good to be true, as a child I quickly became accustomed to feeling “different” from my peers. I had always been so proud of my Lebanese heritage growing up, and that was typically the first impression I left with just about everyone I met. However, over time, I began feeling isolated while straddling two ethnic identities. I felt Lebanese in Jersey and American in Lebanon. Over time, I also became accustomed to being placed in a box, rather than being seen as the more complex individual I thought I was. After many trips to Lebanon witnessing the turmoil and strife endured by my friends and family, I realized that my goal in life would be to help others while fostering a curiosity for what makes us all similar yet different. I wanted to help others feel like their true selves rather than the embodiment of the societal assumptions imposed on their identities. After completing my undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in Chemistry and English, I headed back home for medical school at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to achieve my goal. It was there that I discovered psychiatry as the perfect amalgamation of the sciences and humanities—caring for patients’ mental well-being in the context of their lived-experiences and their complex identities.

Why I chose MSBI:
When it came to choosing a program for my clinical training, there was really only one thing I considered: clinical exposure. Okay, maybe another thing was living in New York City. However, my top goal in residency is to finish feeling like I am prepared for any patient encounter when I graduate. That’s exactly what MSBI has to offer. We genuinely see people from all walks of life who come through our Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP), onto our inpatient floors, and through our outpatient clinic. Every day is a reminder of how grateful we are to help those in our incredibly diverse neighborhood of the Lower East Side. On first-glance, that clinical exposure can seem daunting, though I could tell the MSBI psychiatry faculty, residency classes, and staff show incredible dedication and support to each other, as well. Being a part of the Mount Sinai network also offers many opportunities to become involved in academic pursuits and research to further our knowledge in the field of psychiatry. As my interests and pursuits change, I am confident that the resources to satisfy those changes are quite more than enough. Last, I can now say that it is truly crucial to find a program with the right culture for you. I can safely say that I’ve already made lifelong friends in my residency class. A great residency class makes for an even greater experience in everything you will accomplish during your training.

My daily schedule:
As of now, I have completed one month of inpatient psychiatry and two weeks in the CPEP. Through sheer willpower in my undergraduate studies, I became a morning person and this blessing (curse?) stuck around. I typically wake up at an early hour to leisurely brew a cup of coffee and read the news before boarding the shuttle at 7:30 am from my Mount Sinai housing apartment to MSBI. After arriving around 7:50 am, I receive sign-out from the overnight CPEP team and start seeing patients as they come in. I evaluate patients, speak with patient’s family/friends for collateral information, call outpatient providers, and develop treatment/disposition plans. On Wednesdays, we leave at noon to attend afternoon didactics, and on Fridays, we break for lunch from one of the (many) incredible local restaurants provided by the program! At 5 pm each day, we sign out to the evening CPEP team for any pending reassessments, discharges, or admits. Afterward, I typically catch the subway and hit the gym a couple blocks down the street from my apartment. Then, after eating dinner, I typically hang out with my friends, check out one of the 1,000+ things going on in my neighborhood, or enjoy some relaxation at home with a good book or TV show. During intern year, we have evening call from 5 pm-10 pm about once every one or two weeks and a weekend call shift one or two times per month, with a senior resident and attending always available on-site for assistance.

Background:
My name is Michael Tang and I am one of the psychiatry PGY-2s at MSBI. Before residency, I spent most of my life in Texas. I was born in Houston.  I did my undergraduate studies at The University of Texas in Austin, and attended McGovern Medical School. My interest in psychiatry stemmed from the psychology and sociology classes I took as an undergraduate. Seeing the extremes of human behavior during my psychiatry clerkship and participating in the “dance” of the psychiatric interview while fostering strong therapeutic alliances ultimately finalized my decision to specialize in psychiatry.

Why I chose MSBI:
During interview day, I was impressed by the program’s strong feeling of community and diverse clinical population. In particular, I felt the camaraderie between resident classes as conveyed during the resident Q&A (led at that time by Lakshmi Karamsetty, now PGY-3, and Quentin “Q” Reynolds). Now having finished intern year, I can attest to the severity of pathologies and diversity of backgrounds that MSBI residents have the privilege to encounter, having treated multiple patients with clozapine or ECT and being surprised in utilizing our interpreter line in languages I had never heard before.

My daily schedule:
I live at one of the resident housing buildings near Columbus Circle, and it’s about a 30-minute commute door-to-door via the Mount Sinai West to MSBI shuttle. I am currently in the middle of our inpatient geriatric rotation, which we spend two four-week blocks doing as PGY-2s.  I’m at the PGY-2 geriatric office by 7:30 am and spend an hour pre-rounding on my patients until nursing rounds at 8:30 am and table rounds at 8:45 am where my co-resident, Yucera Salman, and I discuss our patients with our supervising PGY-4 resident and attending. Our average census per resident ranges from five to eight on average, and we see predominately patients age 65  and older with neurocognitive disorders, delirium, primary psychotic disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, substance use disorders, etc. Because the geriatric patients share the same unit as the adult patients, we occasionally also treat patients younger than 65 to even the distribution of patients between the adult team, which is managed by the PGY-1s, and the geriatric team. Rounds typically end around 10:30-11 am, and we spend the rest of the time completing our daily tasks, including putting in orders, consulting services, writing notes, obtaining collateral, teaching medical students, conducting family meetings, and admitting new patients. Yucera and I will often say “Hi” to our residents next door who are doing their Consultation-Liaison psychiatry rotation while stealing the coffee in their room during this time. At 3:30 pm, we quickly do afternoon rounds for any patient updates and further learning, and typically spend the last hour (4-5 pm) wrapping up any tasks.

Background:
My name is Chloe Soukas, and I am PGY-3 at MSBI. Growing up in Rockland County, New York, I spent quality time with my large family and played every sport under the sun. I received my undergraduate degree from Harvard College, where I concentrated in Human Evolutionary Biology and completed a secondary field of study in Global Health and Health Policy. I was fortunate to play on the varsity lacrosse team there, where I made some lifelong friends. I worked as a clinical research coordinator at Mount Sinai before attending medical school at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. A combination of loving my inpatient rotations in psychiatry at Rutgers, along with having great mentors, led me on the path to becoming a psychiatrist.

Why I chose MSBI:
Having worked at Mount Sinai in the past, I experienced its commitment to patients, staff, and the community first-hand. While interviewing, I met people who seemed grounded in nature and the residents appeared both happy and fulfilled. I anticipated that MSBI fosters a sense of camaraderie, which has proven to be true. I also love the surrounding location and all it has to offer.

My daily schedule:
As a PGY-3 resident, my year consists of working in the outpatient clinic at Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Center. My caseload includes both medication management and therapy, and I take on new cases throughout the year. The clinic is divided into interdisciplinary teams consisting of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. I'm currently on the Consultation-Liasion/Geriatrics team and am learning so much from specialists in these fields. I get in around 8 am and spend my days seeing patients, undergoing supervision, and going to didactics. A favorite time of the week is when our class gets together for Friday lunch :)

Background:
My name is Anshuman Srivastava, and I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey with my parents and older sister. I attended Rutgers University-New Brunswick for my undergraduate studies, where I majored in Molecular Biology and minored in Philosophy. Following undergrad, I attended medical school at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. My initial plan at the start of medical school was to go into internal medicine, but during my third-year rotations, I began to appreciate the medical complexity of psychiatry. Because there are no labs or imaging that can easily diagnose psychiatric pathology, psychiatrists must have strong observational skills and the ability to be stepwise and methodical in their approach to the patient. I found this exciting, which is why I ultimately decided to pursue psychiatry.

Why I chose MSBI:
By the end of residency, we ought to be ready to practice as attendings in multiple care settings—inpatient, emergency, and outpatient. MSBI gives us the opportunity to see patients from all walks of life with a lot of complex, acute pathology. We have multiple inpatient units, a busy CPEP, and an outpatient clinic that is community-focused. Therefore, I knew that I would graduate MSBI as a well-rounded clinician with the ability to handle whatever came my way.

My daily schedule:
I am a Chief Resident for the program this year, and I am one of the seniors on the inpatient geriatric psychiatry service. I typically wake up around 6:30 am, get ready, and commute 30 minutes by subway to the hospital. I get to the hospital by 7:30 am, review the new overnight admissions, and then assign the new patients to the two PGY-2 residents on the geriatric psychiatry team. We begin table rounding at 8:30 am, where the PGY-2 residents present all their patients. We then do walking rounds and see all the patients together as a team, and this usually ends between 10 and 11 am, depending on the number of new patients we are seeing that morning. I will then spend the next few hours catching up on emails, attending meetings related to my Chief Resident responsibilities, and attending PGY-4 didactics related to career development or psychotherapy. If I have any patients scheduled in our outpatient clinic, I will see them throughout the day, as well. Around all of this, I am keeping track of the inpatient geriatric service patients, and the PGY-2 residents know to reach out to me in case they have any questions or concerns. I will check in with the PGY-2 residents and the attending at 3 pm to “run the list” so that we are all on the same page about any changes and the plan for the patients overnight. My day typically ends around 5 pm or 6 pm, and then I begin my commute back home.