Psychiatry Residency Program

A Message from the Program Director

Thank you for your interest in the Nuvance Health Psychiatry Residency Program (Formerly known as Health Quest). The goal of our residency program is to produce a new generation of psychiatrists who have a solid grounding in community psychiatry. To achieve that we seek to provide a diverse training experience with a strong emphasis on community service. Such training requires attention not only to the biological processes underlying illness, but also how those processes are impacted by a person’s psychology and social environment. Our philosophy is not eclectic. Instead, we believe taking an ecological approach is the best way to improve behavioral health outcomes. We therefore emphasize how biological determinants are strongly influenced by social determinants in the overall health and wellbeing of the patients we serve in our community. This also includes taking the health and wellbeing of our trainees seriously, and we work hard to ensure the clinical learning environment mirrors the kind of environment we feel supports the mental health and wellbeing of our residents in the community in which they serve.

Our program is based at Putnam Hospital, part of Nuvance Health, a community hospital in Carmel, NY, 50 Miles north of New York City, sitting on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Carmel, a town in Putnam County, provides a perfect environment for residency training – teaming with lakes and farmland, charming villages, and protected heritage sites to the splendor of the Hudson River.

The training experience occurs throughout our hospitals, including Putnam Hospital, Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, Danbury-New Milford Hospital, Norwalk Hospital, and Sharon Hospital in Connecticut. In addition, training will also take place at several other area mental health clinics and care facilities in the area. The resident will have exposure to all the different areas of psychiatry including interventional approaches such as ECT and TMS, inpatient and emergency psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, integrated care and telepsychiatry, but more importantly, in providing consultative support to our primary care providers and to our community care teams who oversee patient’s struggling with extreme social issues. Our faculty come from diverse backgrounds and expertise, but all are committed to provide the best teaching and supervision to prepare competent psychiatrists.

We have 8 residency positions per year. I am honored to serve as the Program Director and Network Chair of the Department of Psychiatry. We are excited that you are considering our residency program and looking forward to welcoming a diverse and talented group for the upcoming academic year.

Warm Regards,

Charles Herrick, MD Psychiatry Residency Program Director and Network Chair of Psychiatry Nuvance Health Network

Program Structure

The Psychiatric Residency Program is a 4 year categorical program based at Putnam Hospital Center (PHC) at Nuvance Health/Nuvance Facility.

During the training residents will rotate in 3 other Nuvance Health/Nuvance Health faculties and several outpatient clinics. Every block consists of 4 weeks rotations in Primary Care, Neurology, Inpatient Psychiatry and Emergency Psychiatry during the first year.

In the subsequent years the residents will have rotations in Integrative Care, Community Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, Outpatient Geriatrics, Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Consultation, Forensic Psychiatry, Outpatient Psychiatry, and Tele- Psychiatry.

A robust Psychotherapy curriculum will begin in the second year of training.

An example of training blocks for First Year is shown below as an example. Please note that the schedule may be adjusted by the Program Director to ensure adequate training experiences, case log, and ACGME compliance.

 

Sites: PHC = Putnam Hospital Center, VBMC = Vassar Brothers Medical Center, DH = Danbury Hospital, and SH = Sharon Hospital.

Psychiatry Residency Program Fast Facts

  • 4-year ACGME Residency Program
  • 8 Residents per year – 32 residents total in four years

Program Highlights

  • Rotational experiences in 4 hospitals and several outpatient and integrated care clinics
  • Exposure to all the different subspecialties of psychiatry including ECT, forensic child and adolescent psychiatry and telepsychiatry
  • Teaching by experienced and passionate faculty in every rotation site
  • Robust didactic curriculum with weekly protected afternoon for didactics, frequent journal club and grand rounds, quality improvement (QI) projects, PRITE and board preparation, chart reviews, and structured clinical examinations (OSCE)
  • Diversity of patients, adequate volume of patient cases

Academic Didactic Schedule

Weekly protected time for lectures, seminars and conferences are provided. The didactics are designed to provide fundamental knowledge in General Psychiatry and subspecialties in the ACGME competencies and milestones designed for training in Psychiatry.

Lectures and seminar topics for PGY-1 years:

  • Psychopathology
  • Psychiatric Interview, Case Presentation and Writing
  • Introductions to Psychopharmacology
  • Introduction to Emergency Psychiatry and Risk Assessment
  • Introduction to Psychotherapy
  • Neurology for Psychiatrists
  • Introduction to Community Psychiatry
  • History of Psychiatry
  • Identity, Team Leadership, Professionalism, and Transition to Practice: An Experimental Group Approach
  • PRITE Review
  • GME Lecture Series
  • Journal Club
  • Case Conferences
  • MOC Interviews
  • Introduction to Geriatric Psychiatry
  • Essentials of Psychiatric Consultation

How to Apply

The Nuvance Psychiatry Residency Program at Putnam Hospital Center would like to thank you for your interest in applying to our program. We accept all applications through the ERAS  and participate annually in the NRMP Match Program. Interviews will be virtual via Thalamus for the 2022-2023 recruitment season.

Contact via email ONLY: bridgette.snell@nuvancehealth.org.

Requirements

The following items are required for consideration of interview. All items must be received through ERAS application portal:

  • Personal Statement
  • Current CV
  • Transcript
  • 3 Letters of Recommendation
  • MSPE (Dean’s) Letter
  • J1 visa holders are welcome to apply

Applications are due through ERAS on November 15.

Additional Benefit and Stipend Information

  • Relocation allowance during the first year of residency: $2,000.
  • Educational stipend: $1,800 annually
  • Lab coats: 3 lab coats are provided during the first year of residency

Statement on Diversity

The Psychiatry Residency Program at Nuvance Health at Putnam Hospital is committed to fostering a culture that reflects the incredibly rich diversity of our community and of the patients we treat. The Psychiatry Residency Program welcomes individuals of all backgrounds, cultures and individual differences regardless of ethnicity, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation. We are committed to inclusion, and we believe that a diverse academic community enhances our ability to treat our patients and train our medical students and residents.