Virtual Resources in Psychiatry Ed.

As our society and health system confronts the challenge of COVID-19, psychiatry educators have been asked to develop, disseminate and implement curriculum for all levels of trainees which does not rely on in-person participation.

We all know that in-person training is superior, AND simply not an option at the moment at most institutions.

My colleagues and I have developed several resources, along with other collected resources, which may be immediately implemented at no cost. Some of these resources were developed with UMN students in mind, but I have decided to share externally in case these are useful to educators and students at other institutions. Please use, share, and use any remaining energy to support our health care professionals directly delivering care, and to support students, trainees and residents.

We've got this.

Kaz J. Nelson, MD

Associate Professor

Vice Chair for Education, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sci

Program Director, Psychiatry Residency

Chair, Scientific Foundations Committee

Associate Designated Institutional Official

University of Minnesota Medical School

Twitter: @Kaz.j.nelson

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaz.j.nelson

The Psyche Primer is a 200+ page online textbook covering fundamental concepts in psychiatry. The Primer was developed to target a third-year medical students level of education. This text is authored by University of Minnesota Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Professor Emeritus, Dr. Thomas B. Mackenzie. He has made this text available for use in education without cost. Use for commercial on non-education purposes is prohibited.

For those of you who are in the position of converting the Psychiatry Clerkship to virtual methods, this website provides a fairly comprehensive curriculum which can be immediately deployed. This curriculum includes readings from the Psyche Primer, Clinical Skills Initiative (CSI) online modules from the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP), online modules developed at the University of Minnesota, and select podcasts. All resources are organized by topic on a comprehensive web page, which may be shared directly with the students. All resources are free and do not require an account. This was developed in collaboration with Dr. Lora Wichser.

http://z.umn.edu/VirtualClinicalPsychiatry

For those of you who are in the position of converting undergraduate medical psychiatry education to virtual methods, this website provides a fairly comprehensive curriculum which can be immediately deployed. This curriculum includes readings from the Psyche Primer, information about essential disorders to know according to the USMLE content outline, and practice questions. All resources are organized by topic on a comprehensive web page, which may be shared directly with the students. All resources are free and do not require an account.

http://z.umn.edu/PsycheFramework

We have developed online modules specifically on the topic of Psychiatry Interviewing and learning basic concepts in psychotherapy. This is excellent foundation content for psychiatry and primary care specialties. No-cost. Please share with colleagues in other disciplines and specialties.

http://z.umn.edu/MinnesotaArc

http://z.umn.edu/Psychotherapy1

http://z.umn.edu/Psychotherapy2

A self-directed learning module on the topic of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) created by UMN resident, Dr. Junao Wang, is available for free by downloading through MedEd Portal. Account set-up is required.

https://www.mededportal.org/publication/10713/

In some cases, student or resident rotations may be transitioned to academic, research, or scholarly experiences. The following website offers a step-by-step blueprint and resources to support high quality self-directed scholarly work. Some resources on this web page (such as information about the Institutional Review Board) are University of Minnesota-specific, but may serve as a placeholder for institutional specific resources. All scholarly work must be supervised.

http://z.umn.edu/scholarlytoolkit

This is a free online resource created by the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative (NNCI) with several outstanding online modules and videos. We have successfully used this excellent repository within our residency. Account set-up is required to access the resources. NNCI also has an excellent podcast "Ten to the Fifteenth".

For anyone stuck in quarantine and looking for things to do: come learn some awesome neuroscience with the NNCI! Starting Wed (3/18), we're launching our 14 day "Quarantine Curriculum."

"The NNCI is a collaboration between educators and neuroscientists. The overarching aim of the NNCI is to create, pilot, and disseminate a comprehensive set of shared resources that will help train psychiatrists and other mental health providers to integrate a modern neuroscience perspective into every facet of their clinical work. To meet this aim we have developed engaging and interactive exercises for teaching in the classroom in addition to brief videos and resources for self-study and clinical supervision."

www.nncionline.org

Consider encouraging students and trainees to create a professional account in Twitter to stay connected with colleagues through virtual means.

Medical Student Chat (@MedStudentChat) is a activity on Twitter when students go onto this platform at the same time and respond to facilitated questions and connect with one another regularly.

Psychiatry Resident Chat (@PsychResChat) is another Twitter chat activity directed as psychiatry residents and fellows.

I have created a freely available podcast with general, evidence-based information on psychiatric illness and mental health called The Mind Deconstructed: Mental Health and Wellness with Dr. Kaz and George. This may be a useful resource for students or residents who enjoy learning through podcasts.

The most recent episode on ways of managing stress, grief, isolation, loneliness, and panic related to this global pandemic.

www.theminddeconstructed.org

Also available through most podcast distributors (Stitcher, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Amazon Echo smart speakers, etc.)

For students exploring the field of psychiatry as a future profession, this website has compiled resources to support exploration. This resources is currently directed towards UMN students, but students from across the country may find this resource to be useful.

http://z.umn.edu/UMNPsychiatryInterest

#ChoosePsych