Residency Overview by our Program Director: Dr. Douglas Leonard

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine, in conjunction with Kennedy Memorial Hospitals-University Medical Center, and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center offers a comprehensive Psychiatry Residency Program.  We are in the seventeenth year of our program and offer an exciting and varied array of clinical and educational experiences. There have been 50 graduates of the program.  75% have stayed in New Jersey and of those more than 60% have stayed with the Department of Psychiatry.  Our faculty works closely with residents to provide a highly personalized environment for learning.  We constantly review our clinical rotations and didactic schedules in order to provide each resident with a diversified and satisfying educational experience.  Flexibility to meet individual needs and interests are built into the program.  There has been recognition that most of our graduates enter careers in Community Psychiatry and therefore we have focused our program in this area.

The philosophy of the program is commitment to the holistic concept of osteopathic medicine and our program includes the integration of the biologic concept and psychosocial approaches.  Once this foundation is built, other therapeutic modalities such as family therapy, behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and group therapy, are introduced and compliment the core of the training philosophy.  This serves to challenge and encourage each resident’s individual interests.  Our program further commits itself in a unique way to the belief that academics are an essential ingredient in the training of the resident and the hope of the psychiatric profession in the future.  Each resident is encouraged (but not required) to develop an original research project suitable for publication to be completed during his/her PGY IV year.  The program does have a requirement to submit a paper of “publishable quality”.  We work to include Osteopathic philosophy in our program.  The Program Director gives instruction monthly at Peer Meetings to provide instruction in applying manipulative medicine while not violating boundaries that in many psychiatric diagnoses, is of great concern. 

Dual Accredidation

The program was re-inspected by the AOA in September 2005 and received 5-year reaccredidation.  We have received Full Accreditation Status from the ACGME and have recently gone through a site survey. The initial response was quite positive and we await formal written feedback that may take up to 3 months for the response. A critical initiative of the ACGME is to integrate core competencies and these are a driving force for the residency.