Brochure For Prospective Residents
Introductory Letter
Overview of Program
Rotation Schedule and Objectives
Resident Seminars
Psychotherapy Training
Career Opportunities
Faculty Research By Group
Stipends and Benefits
Map For Applicants
From Garage to Renard
(PDF)
Residents
Current Residents
National Achievements of Residents
The Eli Robins Award
The Gene Rubin Award
Resident of the Year
Resident Photos
Other Items of Interest
Department Faculty
Faculty Research Interests
Department Publications
Department Grants
Weekly Seminars
Residency Program
Introductory Letter About The Program
Washington University School of Medicine is well known for its excellence in training physicians. The school is consistently ranked among the top medical schools in the U.S. This strong educational environment is complemented by the outstanding clinical care provided by our physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, one of the top hospitals in the country. We have outstanding clinical facilities, which have been further enhanced by a state-of-the-art, 645,000-sq. ft. multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Medicine and Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center as well as the Charles F. Knight Emergency and Trauma Center and the Center for Outpatient Health which houses our psychiatric clinic.
The Department of Psychiatry has been at the forefront of psychiatric care for decades. Our clinicians were among the first to realize the importance of psychiatric diagnosis and played a key role in the creation of modern diagnostic criteria. Led by two of our former chairmen, Eli Robins and Sam Guze, our clinicians have championed the medical model of psychiatry. This approach, which is almost universally accepted now, stresses the scientific method and views psychiatric dysfunction as an interaction between genes and environment. Exciting research is beginning to elucidate the basic mechanisms underlying psychiatric illnesses, and faculty in our department are helping to lead the field in this type of research. Research to examine the effectiveness of psychotherapies and the important role of environmental stressors is also consistent with the medical model. Along these lines, members of our department’s faculty are studying the roles and effectiveness of psychotherapies in the treatment of major depression in patients with certain medical illnesses, and the categorization of personality disorders.
Our department is proud of the quality and diversity of training that our residents receive. We attract residents from throughout the U. S. and the world. Upon completion of their training, our graduates are highly valued and recruited.
We believe that comprehensive clinical skills are essential to all psychiatric residents. A major emphasis of our program is intensive clinical training underscoring diagnostic skills, somatic treatments including psychopharmacology, ECT, and experimental procedures such as rTMS and VNS, and a wide range of psychotherapeutic techniques including supportive therapy, cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, and pragmatic psychodynamics. A major goal of our clinical training is to teach residents how to learn so that they can practice state-of-the-art psychiatry throughout their entire careers. This goal is achieved by residents working closely with our world renowned faculty as well as experienced clinicians working in the St. Louis community. In addition, they are exposed to the rigorous creative thinking required for excellent psychiatric research. This exposure enhances the ability of our residents to understand and enjoy reading the psychiatric literature as well as to evaluate it critically, allowing them to keep abreast of changes in this fast moving field. We strongly believe that this combination of superb clinical training and exposure to investigative expertise is the most effective way to prepare psychiatry residents for the future.
In order to introduce you to our program, this brochure contains current information concerning our specific rotations as well as the objectives of each rotation. We also have included a list of the lecture series for the past several years, as well as a description of our psychotherapy training. To give you a feel for Grand Rounds and weekly research seminars, we have included a list of last year's weekly seminars.
The strength of any university and residency training program is found in the talents of its faculty, residents, and students. Our faculty members are clinically excellent. Approximately 35% of our residents pursue subspecialty training. In addition, our faculty members are well known for their research. We have included a list of our full-time faculty and their research interests. Two measures that reflect faculty expertise are publications and funded support. We have, therefore, included our 2011 publications list and titles of grants receiving external funding as of mid-2012. Perhaps most importantly, our accomplished faculty are friendly, easily accessible, and outstanding teachers.
The clinical, educational, and research opportunities here are truly outstanding. We are also firm believers in mixing the right amount of clinical training with free time to unwind and relax. Our residents take advantage of a wide range of cultural activities available in St. Louis including well-known attractions like the St. Louis Symphony, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis Zoo, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Fox Theater and sports teams like the Rams football, Cardinals baseball, and Blues hockey. Forest Park, adjacent to our medical complex, is one of the country’s largest and most beautiful city parks. It has biking, jogging and roller blading trails, golf courses, tennis courts, sports fields, boat rentals, an outdoor ice skating rink as well as wonderful natural beauty. It is home for three major museums in addition to the St. Louis Zoo and The Muny in Forest Park, a 12,000 seat outdoor theater featuring Broadway musicals in the summer. The Danforth campus of Washington University has excellent athletic facilities that are frequented by our residents.
We hope that the information in this brochure gives you a flavor of the approach and quality of our residency training program. We believe that visiting St. Louis and interviewing with us will let you experience the strengths of our program and city firsthand.
Nuri B. Farber, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Director of Psychiatry Residency Training
Melissa Harbit, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Asst. Director of Psychiatry Residency Training
Charles F. Zorumski, M.D.
Samuel B. Guze Professor
Head of Department