Daeja Hamm, PGY-1

Hey, I’m Daeja! I love food, mindless television, and being a psychiatry intern at Emory. I am from South Atlanta, and I love being here because there is so much culture and vibrance in this city. I stayed in Georgia for undergrad and eventually made my way to Emory for medical school. As someone who made it to medical school because of pipeline programs like Summer Science Academy at Emory, I have a strong passion for DEI work. During my time as a medical student at Emory, I helped to institute Emory’s first longitudinal anti-racism curriculum.   I think my interest in advocacy and social justice led me to psychiatry, but also, I really enjoyed how open-minded the psychiatrists I worked with were about severe mental illness at Emory.

There is such a need for mental health professionals in the state, and, I feel very connected to the patient population we serve here. I wanted to go to a program that emphasized the importance of serving the underserved, community engagement, and bringing new ideas to how we treat psychiatric illness. Working at Grady, a large public, safety-net hospital, is incredibly rewarding and I love working with the thoughtful attendings in our psychiatric emergency room, newly-renovated psychiatric unit, and outpatient clinics. I have an interest in psychotherapy, particularly, for those managing psychosis and fortunately Emory is strong in psychotherapy. I have experienced that even before formal psychotherapy courses start, we are taught techniques early on to integrate into our practice.

Currently, I’m on inpatient medicine! I like that the psychiatry interns rotate through the same medicine team and so the attendings and seniors are super happy to have psychiatry interns on service. Emory recently switched to an Early/Late system so my schedule alternates from 4PM sign-out to 7PM sign-out.

5:30 AM – Wake up and be very impatiently nudged by my pup to go outside. Order my London Fog for pickup at Grady’s 24 hour Starbucks!

6:30 AM – Prechart/Be a new intern and ask my senior nothing short of a million questions

7:00 AM-12:30 – Round, finish notes, see the new patients

12:30 – Noon conference (sometimes there is free food!)

1:30-4:00 on an Early Day – Notes, orders, putting out fires and signing out to my co-intern who will do 7PM signout for the team on my Early day

1:30-whenever I get done or the last admission – Notes, orders, get sign out from my co-intern, if I get done early I do 7PM sign out over the phone

I’ve been home before 7 my whole rotation :)!

I take a long walk (I must get 10k steps everyday!) and hangout with my husband, try a new restaurant and never log back in to Epic - well until the morning!

I live in Executive Park which is right next to where the psychiatry department’s offices are located. I love being close to the hospital because Atlanta traffic can be crazy!

I love long walks! The beltline is my absolute favorite, because I can eat AND walk. There are tons of restaurants, dessert shops, shopping on the beltline and a lot of residents choose to live near the beltline because of it! Buford Highway has the best authentic food from so many different cultures, you have to check it out.

Reach out to current residents outside of the virtual interview day! All of us are super kind and approachable people and understand that the virtual interview process is kind of hindering to getting a feel for the program. Also, the famous, go with your gut and go where you feel you’ll be supported by the faculty there! You’ve got this.