Clerkship Tools: Psychiatry and Mental Health

The best tool for your psych clerkship is a well known book – First Aid for Psychiatry – that covers literally everything you’ll need for the shelf exam (COMAT or the MD version). For large textbooks I say get the real thing, rather than the app. For one, you can make notes in it and use it when the wi-fi goes out. Second, you can buy it used from a fourth year.

However, for the actual rotation you really want to learn the dreaded pharmacy – you need to get the drugs for depression and anxiety down. I kept note cards in my lab coat and used any down time to add to my list, including the generic and trade names for the drugs. Look them up in Medscape if you no longer have a free subscription to Epocrates.

Finally, make liberal use of the resources listed below.

• Psych on Demand is only $2, gives you tons of mental health screening tools in one place and it’s a great app to make you look smarter on rotations.
• USM’s psychiatry aids are a good quick resource to review before your clerkship.
• The excellent Wake Meducation is the source for most of the references for this article. Great job WM! Check it out, they’re awesome.
• Download the resources from Medfools listed below, or try the form I made for outpatient use.

References:

1. Wake Meducation
2. Utah School of Medicine Psychiatry Aids
3. APA’s Practice Guidelines
4. Oxford University’s Psychiatry Podcast
5. University of Arizona’s Psychiatry Grand Rounds Podcast
6. Medscape’s Mobile App
7. Medfool’s Psych Progress Notes and mental status exam
8. Medfool’s psychiatric A&P 1 and 2
9. Pixie’s outpatient psych note