Namdi Nwasike, MD

Hello, my name is Namdi Nwasike, MD. I am one of the PGY-3 psychiatry residents at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). As a current third-year, I spend most of my time in the outpatient clinic. The way third year works, our class of six is split into two groups of three. My group spends Mondays and Tuesdays at Valley Health Partners (VHP) Center for Hope, while Thursdays and Fridays are spent at the LVPG Adult and Pediatric Psychiatry–1259 Cedar Crest (CCAP) Clinic. The other group spends Mondays at VHP and spends Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at LVPG Adult and Pediatric Psychiatry–Muhlenberg.

Every Monday and Tuesday at VHP, I start my day by arriving at the clinic around 8 or 8:15 a.m. to have breakfast and review my first patient of the day. Typically around 11:30 a.m. we’ll have an hour of lunch where I’ll either work on my notes while finishing up lunch, or I’ll go down to the cafeteria with my co-residents and eat lunch with them. On Mondays from 4-5 p.m. we have cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) supervision where we will discuss patients from a more CBT-focused perspective. On Tuesdays, the schedule is essentially the same, except we have supervision with our program director Dr. Martin from 4-5 p.m. During this supervision we typically discuss a wide variety of topics including patient care, medication management, anecdotes, research studies and generally anything that’s on our minds as it pertains to psychiatry.

Wednesdays from 8-10 a.m. are spent in psychodynamic psychotherapy supervision with either Dr. Lewis for one group of PGY-3s, or Dr. McClure for the other group. During our third year, we each have at least one weekly psychodynamic patient. We spend an hour doing psychodynamic therapy with that patient and discuss those psychodynamic cases during those Wednesday sessions. Our attending will give us advice, tips and critiques while also sharing stories about their own psychodynamic cases. These sessions greatly help us to improve our therapeutic modalities, specifically from a psychodynamic lens – which is very different from a CBT-minded approach. We residents also offer advice and feedback to each other during these sessions. We have a break from 10 a.m.-noon, where PGY-3s typically grab lunch/brunch together before didactics starts at noon. From noon-4:30 p.m. we have didactics with all the other residents, where we learn about a variety of topics such as sleep medicine, ECT, TMS, forensic psychiatry and so much more. We also have special sessions during didactics such as journal clubs, grand rounds and intern case conferences.

Thursdays and Fridays at CCAP, I usually arrive around 7:45 a.m. to review my first patient of the day, who arrives at 8 a.m. The patient load is similar to that at VHP, except these patients tend to be higher functioning, thus a higher percentage of them end up being video visits when compared to VHP. We sometimes have staff meetings at CCAP around noon, when we tend to discuss/learn about particular topics such as the clinic goals, particular achievements and other educational modalities. We end our days with supervision from 4-5 p.m., typically with either Dr. Verma or Dr. Tsung. These supervision sessions are similar to the ones we do with Dr. Martin at VHP, though each attending has their own unique flair as to how they supervise us.

Most days after work I hang out in downtown Allentown with co-residents or stay at home with a relaxing cup of tea. About one night a week, we have overnight, home phone-coverage of the consult/liaison service and outpatient clinics from 4:30 p.m. until 8 the next morning. All of this is from home, so we don’t have to come in-person, but we do need to have our computers ready to place orders and review patient charts. Moreover, roughly one weekend a month (both Saturday and Sunday) we will work on either the inpatient psychiatry unit with one or two interns, or we’ll work on the consult/liaison service with one or two PGY-2 residents. Overall, third year has us venturing forth into outpatient psychiatry for the first time, while still having us maintain our inpatient/consult knowledge via those aforementioned weekend shifts. We also step into the “senior resident” role on the weekends as the PGY-1s/2s we work with turn to us for advice. Most days when not on call you’ll be done with work by 5 p.m., which allows for a decent work-life balance.