Residency Program
Our fully accredited program offers both four year and three year options. The four year program is filled through the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), while the three year program is available to individuals who have chosen psychiatry later in their careers. Our program is under the overall direction of the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Inc.
Our goal is to provide a stimulating environment for the education and training of tomorrow's psychiatrist. We believe that the cornerstone to learning psychiatry is understanding the patient. This means spending time with patients to learn not only about their symptoms, but also about their lives. It means learning to help patients acknowledge, bear, and put in perspective their pain; and it means helping the patients to help themselves. This requires a fundamental knowledge of psychodynamics, family and social systems, as well as phenomenology and psychopharmacology.
Our educational program focuses on three approaches: 1) direct patient responsibility; 2) didactic teaching through lectures, seminars and case conferences; and 3) clinical supervision. Teaching provides the conceptual base for patient care while supervision provides the integration.
To strong clinical and teaching components in psychodynamics and cognitive and behavioral therapy, and services in inpatient and general hospital psychiatry, we have added a growing clinical and basic science research base. In conjunction with our various affiliates, we offer a balance of training in both public and private sector psychiatry.
It is an especially exciting time in our department. With the leadership of our Chair, Dr. Laura Roberts, we have added eight new faculty and are developing fellowships in Addiction and Psychosomatics to add to our already established fellowships in Child and Forensic Psychiatry, and our newly accredited Geriatric Psychiatry Program
Dr. Roberts is a nationally recognized researcher in bioethics. This experienced leadership, coupled with a concerned and capable faculty, provides a solid program for the development of clinicians and academicians who wish to provide patient care, conduct research or teach.
I hope you will visit us and see for yourself.
Mara Pheister, M.D.
Director of Residency Education
Video Introduction by Dr. Laura Roberts, Chairman and Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Video Introduction by Dr. Jon Lehrmann, Residency Program Director
Video Introduction to Psychiatry Residency Programs at the Medical College of Wisconsin
General Information
Supervision
Residents are expected to follow selected patients long term. All residents are assigned a minimum of two supervisors in each year of training. Additional supervisors are assigned depending on the clinical rotation. All residents also are assigned a preceptor to discuss non-supervisory resident issues.
Individual supervision of a trainee by a faculty member provides the psychiatric resident an opportunity to review in detail the patients with whom they are working. Our program offers the opportunity to explore diagnostic and treatment issues and allows a resident to focus on the details of the psychological essential aspect to individual and family clinical work even while prescribing medications.Resident Participation
We believe that resident input is crucial to the smooth functioning of the program. Hence, there is a resident representative from each year’s class on the Resident Council which is represented at the monthly Curriculum / Education Committee. Residents also actively participate in interviewing applicants. Residents regularly review all rotations and courses, with feedback to the faculty and service chiefs and participate in an annual retreat to review the curriculum. The Chief Residents are the principal liaisons between residents and faculty. As such, they also attend the Department’s Administrative Committee meeting and meet weekly with the Residency Director and Associate Director on both an individual and group basis. Finally, residents meet each week at a business meeting led by the Chief Residents.
Call
The Psychiatric Crisis Service and Admission Center at the Milwaukee County Health Division is an active emergency psychiatry intervention program with 11,000 visits per year. Residents learn how to make emergency and initial assessments, sharpen their diagnostic skills, and perform emergency recommendations for care. PGY-I residents have a 1 month Psychiatry ER Experience. PGY-III and PGY-IV residents have an average of 1-2 overnight calls per month. Required call takes place on Monday through Thursday nights. Two residents and one staff psychiatrist are on call on the same night. Work flow usually diminishes to permit 4 hours sleep for each on-call psychiatrist. Residents must leave by 2 pm on post call days.
Benefits
Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Inc.
Academic Year 2009—2010
Stipends
PGY 1—$50,200
PGY 2—$51,200
PGY 3—$52,200
PGY 4—$53,500
PGY 5—$56,500
Vacation—3 weeks
Educational Leave—5 calendar days
Health Insurance (Family, Domestic Partner coverage)
Dental Insurance
Professional Liability Insurance
Life Insurance
Long-term Disability Insurance
Distinguishing Features of Our Program
An on-call system of reasonable frequency with no overnight call in the PGY 1 psychiatry rotations.
Residents are paid extra for their overnight training calls.
Four months of required medicine rotations include one month Family Medicine, one month Emergency Medicine, one month Internal Medicine, and one month Outpatient Medicine.
Faculty includes psychoanalysts and experts in cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT) as part of our unique separate psychotherapy training program.
Elective research opportunities in a department that is ranked 22nd nationally among medical school psychiatry departments receiving NIMH funding.
Starting outpatient rotations in the second year allows residents to treat outpatients continuously over three years.
Three month blocks in the PGY 1 year permits, at most, only three consecutive months away from psychiatry.
Maximum of nine months of required adult inpatient rotations frees much of the PGY IV year for electives.
Multiplicity of training sites offers access to diverse patient populations in both the public and private sectors.
Access to the Chairman and senior faculty through journal clubs and seminars.
Opportunities to teach medical students.
Opportunity to work at Healthcare for the Homeless.
Milwaukee is a thriving metropolitan community with a Major League Baseball team and NBA Basketball team. We are an hour and a half from professional football in Green Bay and an hour and a half from Chicago.
Milwaukee is home to the world-renowned Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM), designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Opera, theatre and music are also a part of our city’s cultural attractions. We also have a thriving local art scene.
Ours is an affordable city with reasonable housing prices, a low cost of living and easy commute times.
Milwaukee is a socially conscious city, striving to become more “green” and sustainable.
We have vibrant neighborhoods, with multiple restaurants, outdoor cafés and nightclubs.
Milwaukee’s location on the shores of Lake Michigan allow for sailing, swimming and water sports. Bicycle and walking paths line the shores. The lake is a backdrop for outdoor concerts in the summer.
Find more information on the Milwaukee area at:
www.OnMilwaukee.com
or
www.choosemilwaukee.com