Educational Philosophy

Our educational philosophy is that a resident's education should be driven by the educational needs of the individual, not a one size fits all approach to education.

Individuals who choose to train with us will be exposed to everything they need to be successful physicians, and our progressive autonomy, assessment and supervisory process will ensure that they have mastered the skills they need by the time they graduate.  Due to the diverse nature of our faculty, we will expose residents to a balanced, nuanced way of looking at human behavior and mental illness that focuses on assessment, psychopharmacology, psychosocial interventions, and psychotherapy to help the individuals we treat reach their own potential. A backdrop to this residency education is the ever present notion that our field is constantly evolving and one's education does not stop on the day one completes their training.  The following summarizes the overall educational goals of our residency program.

A graduate of the LSU Psychiatry Residency Program in Baton Rouge will:

1. Possess a strong identity as a physician
2. Be an expert in diagnosis and treatment of mental illness
   • Regarding Diagnosis
     • Will know the DSM intimately and accurately
     • Will have the skills to conduct a psychiatric evaluation and elicit the correct diagnosis
     • Will be able to formulate facts and to assimilate them into a biopsychosocial formulation
     • Will recognize medical presentations of psychiatric illness in a variety of contexts
   • Regarding Treatment
     • Will have a thorough knowledge of psychopharmacology
     • Will be familiar with evidence-based medicine as it relates to psychiatric treatment
     • Will have competence in supportive psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy in brief and long-term practice.
     • Will have an awareness and familiarity with other therapies such as family, couples, group, and other individual evidence-based psychotherapies such as Motivational Interviewing, Dialectial Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and more.
3. Possess interpersonal strength and integrity
   • Will be able to work in a variety of settings
   • Will demonstrate high degree of professionalism and personal awareness
   • Will demonstrate personal flexibility and maturity
   • Will recognize one's own biases and work to minimize their effect on our patients. 
4. Possess an education that has been tailored and individualized based on the individual's interests and strengths
   • Will recognize their own strengths
   • Will blaze their own educational path
   • Will have an expectation that medicine as a career is a lifelong journey