Residency Program
Overview
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Salary and Benefits
View the Psychiatry Residents
Welcome New Residents!
Residency Program Contact:
Barbara Finley
Senior Residency Coordinator
316/293-2680
Overview
The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita offers a fully accredited ACGME four-year General Psychiatry Residency Program, approved for a total of 20 positions. We pride ourselves in having a program that prepares residents for the psychiatric career opportunities awaiting them when they finish their training. Clinical rotations include general hospital psychiatry units (Via Christi Good Shepherd Campus), an outpatient clinic, in a clinical trial (Clinical Research Institute - CRI) (Phase I & II) research setting, as well as a public psychiatry setting (COMCARE).
A major strength of our program is the extensive contact our faculty maintains with the residents. Residents on our clinical services meet with faculty daily. All members of our faculty have courses and provide supervision as well. Our faculty has a wide range of interests and expertise. Sheldon H. Preskorn, M.D., co-author of the Principles and Practice of Psychopharmacology, is a widely cited and internationally known psychopharmacology researcher who heads the Clinical Research Institute. A senior faculty member, he is a graduate of the Washington University psychiatry program in St. Louis and has authored chapters in most of the current major psychiatric textbooks. Residents have considerable exposure to faculty psychiatrists who are involved with new developments in their fields, thereby becoming familiar with "the cutting edge." The small size of the program allows close, regular contact with the faculty.
Residents develop expertise in psychotherapy through regular supervision from experienced faculty in both psychiatry and clinical psychology. The department offers a psychology internship and fellowship program that attracts top psychology graduates who enrich the program through their interaction with the psychiatry residents.
Members of our faculty are involved with organized medicine in a major way. Dr. Michael Burke is the current Kansas Psychiatric Society (KPS) President-Elect, having served the previous four years as Secretary. He serves as the Kansas representative to the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association. Don Brada, MD is a past president of the Kansas Medical Society. Dr. George Dyck Emeritus professor and past chair of the department has served as past president of the Kansas Psychiatric Society, (KPS) the District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association. This broadens the perspective for residents in this day when cooperation among physicians on a national level is increasingly important.
Psychiatrist faculty members have been very involved with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). All of our psychiatrist faculty are board certified in general psychiatry, one in child and adolescent psychiatry, two with added qualifications in forensic psychiatry and four others with added qualifications in geriatric psychiatry. Three faculty (Drs. Burke, Marsh, Perales) serve as Part II examiners, three on a regular basis.
Other areas of expertise provided by faculty are in family systems theory, eating disorders, and neuropsychological testing. Child psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry are taught by board certified specialists in the field. The expertise of our faculty is supplemented by a visiting speakers program bringing prominent national experts to Wichita.
Research opportunities are plentiful. In recent years residents, together with faculty, have published numerous journal articles, book chapters and have made presentations at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association as well as at other meetings. Residents have also received awards, including an award from the Alliance for the Mentally Ill for community service.
The KU Medical School-Wichita offers residencies in all major medical specialties with a total of over 200 residents, the majority of whom are in primary care specialties, giving our residents the opportunity to interact with trainees involved in all aspects of medicine. Ours is a community-based medical school that also educates medical students in their clinical rotations. Community hospitals, which more closely approximate the practice environment graduates will encounter after finishing their training, are the major setting for the training experience. Community physicians are involved in the teaching process.
The University of Kansas offers a graduate degree program to attain a masters of public health. This program is targeted for people already working in the health professions with classes held on weekday evenings. By starting in the PG-2 year, a resident could complete the MPH during the three years of residency through devoting extra time and effort mostly in private study and some class time. Further information is available.
We value our residents' input into the program. Therefore, we annually arrange a "get away" weekend for residents and their families. In addition to recreation, the residents produce a "retreat report" critiquing our program. The faculty takes the recommendations provided very seriously. Numerous improvements in the program have resulted from this process.
Our salary schedule is set by the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education (WCGME) and is uniform for all residents. (Moonlighting is permitted after the first year, once a permanent license is obtained.) A variety of opportunities are available. Currently, first and second-year residents have in-house call responsibilities; third-year residents have only "back up" duties by telephone. PGY3 residents also rotate doing weekend rounds on the geriatric psychiatry unit.
