General Psychiatry Residency Program
What does our program offer?
The West Virginia University Psychiatry Residency Training Program seeks to cultivate future leaders in healthcare. Our program provides a framework that allows residents to achieve personal growth while enhancing their academic and clinical skills. Residents who complete our ACGME accredited program are eligible to sit for the board in Psychiatry administered by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Our residents leave our program well-prepared for various postgraduate positions including subspecialty fellowships, inpatient and outpatient private practice, Veterans Administration jobs, and academic appointments.
What is our program mission?
Our program mission mirrors the land-grant values that, at their core, represent why West Virginia University exists (Service, Education, Outreach, and Research). We achieve this mission through our program aims:
- Prepare residents to provide first-rate services in multiple clinical environments (inpatient, outpatient, academic, collaborative care, clinical research) through education and multidisciplinary clinical activities.
- Encourage a culture of discovery and quality through research, scholarship, and quality improvement projects.
- Instill an appreciation for and a sense of duty in providing service and outreach, respect diversity in all activities, and address and reduce healthcare disparities (including improving access to care, reducing mental health stigma, and addressing health literacy).
Who are our residents?
Our residency program includes trainees from multiple LCME and Osteopathic institutions from throughout the nation and select international graduates. We have trainees from diverse backgrounds that contribute greatly to the clinical, outreach, and service culture of our department to directly impact the citizens of West Virginia. Our residents work with an active and engaged faculty and form strong relationships with the greater WVU healthcare community. Our Graduate Medical Education community currently has 525 residents and fellows and is the largest GME training site in the state. Our residents train, help, and work with educated medical students from the main campus of the WVU School of Medicine.
What do we prepare them for?
We maintain a good balance of trainees pursuing fellowships, academics, and private practice upon graduation. Our residents are prepared for essentially any work environment, including careers in telepsychiatry. We are a national leader in educating residents to address addiction/substance use disorder. We train residents to be liaisons to other disciplines and to serve on multidisciplinary teams. Our program is integrated with the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, which allows for training at the cutting edge of clinical neuroscience.
Who are the patients?
We are embedded in a large Level 1 Trauma Center in a Morgantown, WV with a 700-bed main teaching hospital. Morgantown is the home to West Virginia University, which is a public land-grant, R1 research university. We care for the citizens of Morgantown and the entire state of West Virginia and the surrounding region, as well as WVU students, staff, and a diverse and international patient population that call our college town home.
WVU Medicine has system hospitals in Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in addition to multiple hospitals throughout West Virginia. These system hospitals serve as referral sources that send their most challenging and acute cases to our medical center. Our rural patients are often "doubly underserved" with healthcare disparities including significant poverty superimposed on limited medical and behavioral care access. We actively address the needs of these patients through a longstanding telepsychiatry outreach program. We focus on current treatment and future solutions to major behavioral health issues including addiction and suicide.
What academic institutions do our program graduates go to?
Fellowships
Former residents have secured fellowship training at many nationally respected programs including: University of Pittsburgh, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, University of Washington, University of Hawaii, University of Miami, University of Florida, University of Michigan, and West Virginia University. We are affiliated with four high-quality WVU fellowship programs (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine).
Academic Appointments
Former residents have joined the faculty at academic programs including: the Ohio State University, Yale University, Emory University, University of Utah, University of Mississippi, University of Missouri, Medical University of South Carolina, University of Virginia, University of Georgia, University of Florida, Oregon Health and Sciences University, University of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest University, Marshall University, Eastern Virginia Medical School, and West Virginia University. Many of our former trainees have active roles in medical leadership at both the institution and national level.
No matter your professional goals, our residency will provide a strong foundation for a bright future.