A Day in the Life of a PGY-3 Resident – Dr. Puga-Bernaldo
Stephanie Puga-Bernaldo, MD
Class of 2025
Hi! My name is Stephanie Puga-Bernaldo and I am currently in my PGY-3 year. The primary focus of this year has been on outpatient clinic.
Our two main clinics are located at BMC and Jamaica Plain VA. Our clinic at BMC is a general psychiatry clinic where we see a variety of pathology and are required to take on longitudinal psychotherapy cases. Our clinic at the VA is through the Addictive Disorders Treatment Program (ADTP) where our patients are seen for co-occurring substance use and mental health treatments. We get ample opportunity to practice motivational interviewing and become comfortable prescribing MAT.
In addition, all PGY-3 residents do 6 months of outpatient child and adolescent clinic and 6 months in our intensive CBT clinic at BU’s The Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. At our CBT clinic we don’t do any prescribing, it’s a rotation where we have to rely on developing and strengthening our therapy skills to treat patients.
We also get the opportunity to select an elective of our choice. This year I chose to do the Obstetrics Integrated Behavioral Health (OB-IBH) clinic. Basically I see all the consults that the OB department sends and get to work with pregnant and postpartum patients. Typically I only will see them for a few visits and once they are stable on a medication regimen will send them to their OB or PCP in order to continue to prescribe.
Other electives that some of my co-residents have opted to do include refugee clinic, psychosis clinic, community mental health clinics, just to name a few! Our PD has been very accommodating to our interests, making sure we get good exposure during our time training.
Initially when I heard about PGY-3 year and all the clinics, it sounded like a lot! But many of the specialty clinics are only one half day per week which makes balancing them all very doable.
I have a different supervisor for each clinic that I meet with on a weekly basis to discuss cases. I really enjoy having a variety of supervisors with different areas of expertise. Each supervisor has their own style and way of practicing which allows me to choose what I like and integrate it into my own practice. Seeing different perspectives has helped me find and develop my own style. My supervisors have all been really great about encouraging my growth and autonomy while at the same time sharpening my diagnostic skills.
PGY-3 year we also take call. It ends up averaging to being on-call about once a month. Call is either at BMC or at the West Roxbury VA covering the ED and CL service. We also have 2.5 weeks of nights total this year, which cover the same services.
Overall I’ve really been enjoying PGY-3 year! I feel like I have seen an immense amount of growth so far.
Outside of work I enjoy spending time with my husband and my soon-to-be one year old son. We love taking road trips and exploring different towns around New England on the weekends as we’re both originally from the Chicagoland area. On the weekends we spend in Boston you can find us enjoying the green spaces around the neighborhood and trying out new restaurants or breweries.
Written by Dr. Puga-Bernaldo in January 2024