Educational Objectives

The mission of the Adult Psychiatry Residency Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center is to train psychiatrists that will excel in the practice setting of their choice after graduation from this program. Our graduates are prepared to be solid clinical practitioners whether they choose solo practice or a hospital or community-based setting. If they desire to have a research or academic career, the program can offer the training needed to prepare them for such a path, without compromising the basic training requirements to achieve board eligibility.

This multi-faceted mission is accomplished by providing an educational environment that is intense, comprehensive, and rich in clinical and didactic experiences for our trainees. To fulfill its mission, the program offers mandated rotations, an array of electives, and mandates scholarly activity requirements for residents. The clinical experiences are enriched through exposure to a broad range of patients in different systems and settings, as evidenced by our list of training sites.

We strive to train caring, talented clinicians who will provide the best clinical care possible not only to the citizens of Mississippi but also to citizens wherever their career path may take them. We want our residents to be psychiatrists who will treat the person as a whole, and to this end, our residents receive training in a biopsychosocial approach to care.

Our residents are well-trained in somatic approaches to treatment, including pharmacotherapy and other somatic treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy. Residents receive didactic and clinical training in the full range of pharmacologic treatments, along with sound training in the neurobiologic basis of such treatments.

In the interest of treating the patient as a whole, we also strive to create clinicians who are knowledgeable in a range of psychotherapies, including cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, and supportive psychotherapy. Our residents receive excellent, intense didactic and clinic-based training in all of these therapeutic modalities.

We also prepare our residents to be life-long learners, well-versed in resources to help them maintain knowledge of the most current standards of care and newest pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic treatment modalities.

In short, we strive to create the psychiatrists of tomorrow, who will be prepared to provide the care their patients need and who will always remember to keep that care centered around the patient.