Formal Didactic Experience

Once per month, CLP Fellows will take turns presenting a CL-related topic of interest. This trainee-led teaching is designed to help trainees critically evaluate published literature, understand evidenced-based medicine, and practice teaching relevant scientific information around a topic. Fellows have access to a list of “must read” literature as well, an evolving list of papers important to our field, and previous resident/fellow produced PowerPoints presentations. Journal presentations are led or supervised by the Fellows. This is a required didactic activity.

Once per month, the CLP team comes together for a round table discussion, presided by the Chief of our service, Dr. Jose Maldonado. Attendings or trainees bring forth a challenging case and pose questions to Dr. Maldonado with the aim of quality improvement, incident debriefing, and systems-based practice. This is an opportunity to invite colleagues from other disciplines as well in order to have a well-rounded discussion. This is a required didactic activity.

All outpatient cases seen by CLP-Fellows during O/P Clinic are reviewed and discussed with Service Chief and/or senior clinic attending. This is a required didactic activity.

Once a year CLP-Fellows will present a Grand Round session on his/her research or on a clinically significant issue. This is an elective didactic activity.

Review of the diverse types of psychotherapeutic techniques appropriate for the use in the acute setting of the hospital setting; as well as psychotherapeutic techniques useful in the treatment of chronic medical disorders. When possible and available a live interview will take place to allow trainees learn from seasoned clinicians with particular expertise in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. This is a required didactic activity.

At this meeting representative members from all major specialties discuss difficult ethical cases, develop hospital policy, and conduct actual ethical consultations. Often, discussions regarding major bioethical principles take place. This is an elective didactic activity.

This course is offered every year at the Stanford School of Law by joint faculty from the Schools of Medicine and Law and is an excellent opportunity to gain experience about the interfaces and clashes of mental health and the law. The course includes a review and discussion of landmark cases in psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and the Law, issues of competency assessment, decision making capacity, informed consent, right to refuse treatment, substituted decision making, end of life & right to die will be discussed in depth. This is an elective didactic activity.

CLP-Fellows are assigned a challenging or complex, long-term psychotherapy case which will be followed longitudinally for the rest of their fellowship (or until the patient needs to terminate for medical reasons, or improvement). A psychotherapy supervisor, skilled in the application of psychotherapy in the medically ill will watch via one-way mirror/video camera and provide active feedback and supervision immediately at the end of each session. This is an elective didactic activity.

A scholarly project is a requirement of our program. CLP Fellows are expected to either conduct a quality improvement project, join an existing research project, develop a new research initiative, design and conduct a case series, or carry out an advanced literature review on a specific topic of interest—with the goal of publishing their findings. Fellows interested in developing their own research project will receive training and mentorship in formulating a research question, outlining and executing the steps necessary to conduct a clinical research study (e.g., drafting a study proposal, conducting a literature review, obtaining IRB approval, and identifying potential funding sources), and preparing their work for publication or presentation at a scientific meeting.

In our Division, new research initiatives and updates on ongoing projects are regularly presented and discussed by research and clinical faculty, as well as Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CLP) Fellows. This program provides a space for the presentation and critical discussion of scholarly work, including manuscripts, abstracts, and posters.

This is a required didactic activity.

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellows have the opportunity to enroll in the Methodology of Research in Behavioral Sciences Seminar in which the instructors review and discuss essential methodological topics in clinical psychiatric research, including randomized clinical trials and effect size, statistical hypothesis testing: significance & power; discussion of reliability, validity, and sensitivity; medical test evaluation and risk factor research. This is an elective didactic activity.