The UW Psychiatry residency program offers protected didactics one half-day per week on Thursdays. Didactics are grouped into modules that span across four years and are updated yearly by an appointed faculty member and instructional designer. Residents have an opportunity to provide feedback on their didactics through weekly evaluations that are sent to didactic presenters, module leaders, and the curriculum committee. Evaluations give an opportunity to comment on the content of the didactic, the learning strategies used by the presenter, and how well the presenter includes EDI-related content and creates an inclusive learning environment. Didactics are held at the Center for Behavioral Health and Learning located on the University of Washington Medical Center Northwest Campus.
Residents also attend weekly Departmental Grand Rounds on Fridays during the academic year, site-based journal clubs and resident-led educational activities at each hospital site during R1 and R2 years, psychotherapy seminars at each continuity clinic site during R2 and R3 years, and a 6-month seminar on countertransference during R3 year called Clinical Interactions Seminar.
R4s are given an opportunity to teach the R1s and R2s at Harborview Medical Center Noon Conference. The Teacher Scholar Pathway also offers interested residents the opportunity to engage in educational activities within psychiatry and other disciplines.
Education Consult Service
The Psychiatry Residency Program offers confidential, non-evaluative support to faculty and residents who teach didactics. Consults aim to enhance curriculum quality through expert review and constructive feedback, ensuring alignment with best educational practices, ACGME guidelines, and institutional goals. The residency aims to have every didactic reviewed at least once every 3-5 years to ensure that the curriculum is up-to-date and reflects best practices.
Who Can Request a Consult?
Anyone teaching a didactic – whether faculty, fellow, or resident – can request an education consult.
How Do I Request a Consult?
Consult requests can be made in two ways:
Who Conducts the Consults?
Consults may be completed by an Instructional Designer or by a resident or faculty representative of the Curriculum Committee.
What Types of Consults Are Available?
Most consults are conducted asynchronously through review and written feedback ahead of the didactic. Consults can also be a combination of asynchronous review followed by a synchronous didactic observation. The format depends on the lecturer’s preference, consultant availability, and the nature of the consult focus.
How Much Time Does a Consult Take?
Asynchronous consults typically require 1-2 hours for the consultant to review and provide feedback, depending on the complexity of the topic and materials and the type of consult. Lecturers may take as much or as little time as they need to implement the changes. Lecturers should submit their materials at least one week prior to their didactic. The consultant will review the materials and provide suggestions prior to the didactic for the lecturer to review and make changes.
What Kind of Feedback Will I Get?
Feedback may be specific or general, depending on the faculty member’s request. The consult service’s priorities include increasing active and case-based learning, improving relevance and clinical applicability for the level of training, and enhancing the incorporation of principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout the curriculum.
Who Sees My Consult Feedback?
Consults are informal, private, and non-evaluative. Unless permission is expressly granted by the lecturer to share, consult feedback is sent only to the lecturer.
What Impact Has the Consult Service Had So Far?
As of September 2025, the Education Consult Service has completed 32 consultations with an average improvement of 13% in didactic ratings. Here are testimonials from faculty who have completed consultations:
“I highly recommend an education and DEI consult! Sara was exceptionally timely, made many of the recommended changes directly for me, provided articles as references for the changes suggested, and directly linked me to more inclusive graphics for my slides.”
“I’ve done a handful of consults with Sara now, and it feels like I’m cheating! She comes up with strategies that I would never have thought of to increase engagement, make slides clearer, and use active learning effectively. My lecture ratings have definitely gone up!”
How Else Can I Improve My Didactics?
Below are peer-reviewed self-guided resources for faculty looking to improve their didactics. These resources were created based on best practices, common feedback delivered by the consult service, and themes from resident evaluations.
- Active Learning Toolkit (pending) by Sara Ochoa, Andrew Phan, and Laurel Pellegrino
- This toolkit includes tips to incorporate active learning strategies, create clear learning objectives, use case-based learning, and enhance engagement.
- EDI Didactic Toolkit by Chris Nguyen, Laurel Pellegrino, Sara Ochoa, and James Lee
- This toolkit includes tips for incorporating principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion, facilitate challenging conversations, make lectures accessible, and improve inclusivity and intersectionality. Click here to watch a resident-made video for faculty on how to use the toolkit.
For any UW faculty or residents looking to submit additional self-guided education resources to this webpage, please contact Sara Ochoa. Submissions should be high yield, applicable to all educators teaching didactics, evidence-based, and referenced.