The "Final Stretch:" graduation is coming!

Now that it is January, I am half-way complete with my 4th and final year of training in psychiatry. I am still moonlighting at a local prison hospital during some weekdays and on some weekends, and I am still working daily at the VAMC in Brockton, MA. My duties as a senior 4th year resident include mentoring, supervising and teaching PGY-I and II residents. Moreover, one of my curriculum that I launched last year is still on-going: the Residents As Psychiatry Teachers course, which is designed to teach senior residents how to teach junior doctors.

Most of the senior residents are actively pursuing the next step: one has been awarded a fellowship in psychosomatic psychiatry; but most want to either go into private practice. I, however, will very likely continue to work for the Federal Government via the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. I truly enjoy working with our nation's veterans: those that have served in prior conflicts (World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm) and current, on-going wars (OIF and OEF in Iraq and Afghanistan). The VA offers stellar benefits to its employees (medical care, no need to have liability insurance, no need to have more than one Full, Active license, plenty of paid sick and vacation days, the best on-line computer system in the world, and a competitive salary with fair-market pay, too). Moreover, like I said, one has a nice feeling of helping those that help us maintain our safety and freedom here in America.

I still long to return to my homestate of Louisiana, too. I would like to continue to work for the VA and treating our veterans, and I will also like to continue to practice Correctional Psychiatry and work at a state prison. State jobs also offer very nice packages, and there is also a sense of satisfaction for treating inmates who struggle with mental illness. Patient inmates are a very neglected population, but with terrific need for care! And very few psychiatrists practice in the Correctional System, unfortunately.

Pictured below are a few photographs taken inside the Brockton VA, not too far from our administrative offices.

















Here is a nice photograph of the outside of the front entrance for the Brockton VA: