Site evaluator: Dr. Manuel Saint Martin, MD JD

In the first site evaluation, all the students doing our Psychiatry rotation all joined the zoom call and each presented a patient we had seen on rotation and shared our experiences. It was very helpful to get feedback from Dr. Saint Martin on our write-ups and what to include in which sections, as well as commentary on the nuances of each of our cases. It was also interesting to see how the psychiatric emergency experience I was getting differed from the inpatient psychiatry experience one of my classmates described. I presented the first write-up about a woman with major depressive disorder, suicidal ideation/attempt, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

For our second visit, we submitted 2 H&Ps (presenting one), 5 drug cards, and a research article. I chose to present my second write-up, a man presenting with delusional thinking, mania, and substance abuse disorder. His official diagnosis was ultimately diagnosed with Bipolar 1 disorder and admitted to the inpatient unit for treatment and stabilization. Relating to this case, I presented an article that analyzed emerging findings of Bipolar Disorder regarding both new drug-target therapy and mechanisms to understand more of the Bipolar Disorder phenotype.

Due to the complexity of psychiatry, it was extremely beneficial to discuss these cases and receive feedback on our written accounts from Dr. Saint Martin, who has so much expertise in this field.