Psychiatry
Adult Residency Program
UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School Department of Psychiatry offers a fully accredited four year Residency Training Program in General Adult Psychiatry. The Program is committed to providing a comprehensive education in all the important treatment modalities including psychopharmacology, the psychotherapies, and ECT. Philosophically, the Residency is founded upon the Bio-Psycho-Social model, which is reflected in the didactic and supervisory experience.
The clinical rotations are located at several primary clinical sites: University Hospital (New Jersey Medical School), East Orange V.A. Medical Center, Hackensack University Medical Center (including Quest outpatient clinic), and Lyons V.A. Mental Health Clinic. Residents rotate through all of these sites during the course of training. Additional satellite locations include a V.A. Day Treatment Program, and other satellite locations may be added soon (including a VA-based PTSD rotation). Click here for more information on clinical assignments.
Inpatient rotations are done in 3 - 6 month blocks, for a total of 12 months during the PG-1 and PG-2 years. These rotations take place at University Hospital, East Orange V.A., and Hackensack Hospital. Every effort is made to provide a rotation at each clinical site for every resident.
Four months of Primary Care plus two months of Neurology are part of the PGY-1 experience. For those interested in Child Psychiatry, it is possible to spend two months of the Primary Care time on Pediatrics and the other two months on Internal Medicine.
Outpatient rotations take place at, or nearby, all three primary clinical sites. At University Hospital we offer a range of outpatient rotations through University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC - a Community Mental Health Agency) as well as a long-term, resident-centered clinic (UPOC) - which provides an opportunity to treat patients over the course of two years. Residents are thus able to treat a variety of patients in brief as well as long-term care.
Rotations in Geriatric Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, Partial Hospitalization, Crisis, Consultation-Liaison, and Emergency Psychiatry are all included during the four years.
A specific rotation through the ECT service is provided under the guidance of Dr. Giovanni Caracci, Interim Chair, together with Dr. Ye-Ming Sun.
Elective rotations are scheduled during the fourth year of the Residency.
The Department has recently reorganized the research/scholarly activity component of the program. Formal instruction in research methodology continues under the guidance of experienced researchers. A monthly Journal Club with faculty and residents provides a forum to critically evaluate publications, and residents help to lead these popular conferences. By the end of the PG-2 year each resident is assigned an individual research mentor who helps the resident prepare a case report or other project suitable for consideration for publication. Click here for more details on residency research.
Protected time for didactic instruction in Psychiatry is provided at least one-half day per week during the PG-1 year (while on Psychiatry rotations), and close to two-half days in the PG 2, 3 and 4 years. A comprehensive introductory seminar series in the first year is followed by further seminars in all areas of Psychiatry - including ethics, forensics, biological psychiatry, the various psychotherapies, etc.
Grand Rounds presentations by visiting Professors takes place twice monthly. These conferences are followed by special lunches with the speaker where the Residents have an opportunity to ask additional questions.
Each month one Resident presents at a clinical case conference, together with a faculty discussant. Additional conferences with visiting lecturers are periodically scheduled.
The ACGME/ Residency Review Committee currently approves the Adult Psychiatry Residency Program at New Jersey Medical School for a total of 29 positions. PGY-1 residents generally number 6 - 8 each year. Our graduating residents have enjoyed success following the program and many have pursued additional fellowship training. We are a diverse group of motivated professionals and are committed to providing each member of our team with the best possible learning experience. We encourage you to contact us should you have further questions about our Residency Program. General application information is provided here.