On January 10, 2024, a total of 98 applicants matched to fellowship training programs in our subspecialty. This is a record number and a 19% increase from last year. This testifies to the ever-rising interest in the care of the medically ill. Employment prospects for jobs in both inpatient and outpatient CL remain strong. There is a continued demand for psychiatrists skilled in working in medical settings, including academic and non-academic venues.
If you are interested in pursuing fellowship training, we do wish to assure you that many excellent programs still have open slots. Even if you missed the Match, do contact institutions listed in our directory and you are sure to find a variety of fellowship training opportunities starting in July 2024.
ERAS now available for Applications to C-L Fellowship
We are excited to announce that the ACLP has decided that C-L Psychiatry may use ERAS (the Electronic Residency Application System) as a method for fellowship application starting with the 2023-2024 recruitment season. Fellowship programs will decide for themselves whether to accept applications via ERAS, email, or both. Make sure to check the ACLP web program listings as well as individual fellowship websites to confirm.
For further information on ERAS and submission timelines, please review the following website: Applying to Fellowships with ERAS. The timeline for applications is given at: ERAS Fellowship Timeline. In order to obtain your ERAS token, see: ERAS Token.
Most applicants will be interviewing in the late summer or fall. This year, the deadline for submission of Match rankings by applicants and programs is December 20, 2023, and the results of the Match will be announced January 10, 2024.
For applicants submitting by email, note that many fellowship programs accept the ACLP Common Application, which can be found here: ACLP Fellowship Common Application.
The ACLP joins the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training (AADPRT), the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), many other medical organizations, and most educational institutions in making the following recommendation: All interviews for candidates applying in fall 2023 for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowships be done by virtual means. Both local and distant applicants should be interviewed only by remote technology. There should be no in-person or second-look visits, but programs may schedule virtual events or tours. If these are offered, they should be offered to all applicants. All-virtual interviewing has been employed successfully since the fall of 2020, fostering increased diversity of applicants and the elimination of travel expenses among the many benefits.
We wish you the best of luck with your pursuit of fellowship training. We do assure you that a wide variety of programs, with different sorts of emphasis and features, in different areas of the US, will welcome your application.
A C-L psychiatrist, Samual Greenstein, MD, discusses the importance of fellowship training. He shares his path of working as an attending for several years before joining fellowship training. See his article here.
You can also view the June 2023 webinar, Applying to C-L Psychiatry Fellowships in 2023: A Virtual Q&A here: https://youtu.be/Ict2leGZguw
Why Consider a C-L Psychiatry Fellowship?
Thanks to Terry Rabinowitz, MD, DDS, FACLP, former chair of the Academy’s Fellowship Education Subcommittee, for the answer to this question.
Consultation-liaison psychiatry (CLP) is that branch of psychiatry that deals with the understanding and advancement of medical science, education, and health care for persons with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions. It is also referred to as Hospital Psychiatry. Whatever its name, it is an exciting and gratifying psychiatry subspecialty that, given the direction medicine and medical care is heading in the U.S., will be an important way new psychiatrists will be able to play an active role in the comprehensive medical care of a large portion of the population.
Training in CLP currently follows completion of a General Psychiatry residency training program; CLP fellows typically spend one additional year in training, although some training programs include an optional additional year. There are now more than 70 ACGME-accredited CLP Fellowship training programs, with numbers steadily increasing. Satisfactory completion of a CLP fellowship qualifies each graduate to sit for the subspecialty board examination in CLP administered by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
There are many ways a specialist in CLP may be helpful to an in- or outpatient and to those caring for someone with comorbid psychiatric and medical or surgical conditions. Some examples include: treatment of delirium tremens in an elderly woman with unsuspected alcohol dependence who just received coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), consultation to an outpatient HIV/AIDS Clinic to help manage psychotropic medications for a patient about to begin a new antiretroviral regimen, co-treatment with the Maternal and Fetal Medicine Service of a young woman with bipolar disorder who is taking lithium for mania prophylaxis and who wishes to become pregnant, and inpatient consultation to the Oncology Service for a depressed middle-aged man with newly diagnosed, widespread pancreatic cancer.
C-L Psychiatry gives one the opportunity to “hold onto” a great deal of his or her medical and surgical training and to use it effectively and, in addition, the chance to work more closely with medical and surgical colleagues than is typically the case for most psychiatrists. It’s a great way to make a big difference in the lives of those with complicated medical or surgical conditions who are suffering emotionally, those in hospital whose behaviors place them or others at risk, and for those who care for them.
ACLP Residency Interviews: (embedded videos below)