Here are just some of the many reasons we believe our general psychiatry residency program offers excellent opportunities, and should be on your list of programs to apply to:

• Education is a top priority of this Department.
Our faculty comprise a strong group of clinical and research educators, many of whom have won major teaching awards from the medical center, the university, and national organizations.

• We offer an exceptional range of clinical, didactic, and elective residency experiences.
These are “built-in” to the training cycle of all psychiatry residents. We offer “selective” schedule opportunities in PGY2 and 3; and there are 4 months of half-time electives and 4 months of quarter-time electives in PGY-4. Our electives catalog offers 38 options, and new ones are created each year.

• Workloads are continually monitored for balance.
Inpatient team sizes and outpatient case loads are routinely reviewed, and “capped” to insure balanced clinical and didactic learning.

• In addition to thorough education in psychiatric diagnosis, biological theory, neuroscience, and psychopharmacology, we offer an outstanding program in psychotherapy training.
This includes didactic and treatment experience in seven modalities, many opportunities for direct observation and feedback about your work, and the chance to work with a wide variety of skilled supervisors. About 70 fulltime and clinical faculty members contribute time and expertise to the psychotherapy training program.

• The program offers many supportive features for residents.
These include faculty and senior resident advisors, an assigned faculty coordinator for each PG year, evening admitting residents and night floats, and senior administrative residents, in addition to chief residents and an associate program director.

• The faculty includes about 80 full-time members, and 100 clinical (volunteer) participants.
They represent many outstanding leaders in their fields, with national and international reputations.

• We offer a number of unique programs.
Among them are the Institute for Women’s Health; the VCU Mood Disorders Institute; the Virginia Institute for Child and Family Studies; and the internationally recognized Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics.

• Our research and scholarly productivity is high.
VCU psychiatry programs produce more than 200 publications annually; we are in the top quartile of U.S. psychiatry departments for research funding; we are ranked #5 (?) internationally for research impact in psychiatry.

• We are now offering a special Residency Research Track.
This will include dedicated didactic programs, mentorship, and protected research time, tailored to research-oriented applicants with a range of prior experience.

• We have a wide range of elective experiences.
Our PGY-4 electives catalog (see listing in box, above left) includes about 60 offerings, and new opportunities are developed each year. We are currently organizing our electives into “selective tracks” to facilitate the development of senior resident expertise. These will include such areas as Hospitalist, Outpatient Pharmacotherapy Practice, Outpatient Psychotherapy Practice, Scholarship/Academic Career, Administrative Psychiatry, Mental Health Advocacy, and others. The Residency Research Track (above), or early entry into Child/Adolescent Psychiatry, also offers specialized paths during
PGY-4.

• We offer post residency fellowships in 5 subspecialty areas of psychiatry: Addictions, Child and Adolescent, Forensics, Geriatrics, and Psychosomatic Medicine.
Our child/adolescent program includes its own clinical site, a large faculty, and special features such as a school for autism. Our psychosomatic program is headed by a leading educator and author in the field.

• The MCV Hospitals, part of the VCU Health System, constitute one of the largest academic medical centers in the United States.
We offer 23 different residency programs, and 46 subspecialty fellowships. In psychiatry, our very broad patient base yields more than 12,000 visits per year.

• MCV Hospitals are repeatedly ranked among “America’s Best Hospitals” in published surveys of both patients and practitioners.

• The Medical College of Virginia, now part of Virginia Commonwealth University, has a long and proud historical tradition.
The medical school was founded in 1838; the first professor of psychiatry was appointed in 1930. The general psychiatry residency was accredited in 1954, and has received continuous approval by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for more than 50 years. Our most recent site visit, in 2005, resulted in the maximum 5-year re-accreditation.

• Richmond, Virginia is a great place to live.
We are located in a moderately sized city, with a sound economic base, rich historical and cultural offerings, and a high quality of life. Recreational opportunities abound, both locally, and within the surrounding region.