Psychiatry Residency & Fellowships
Residency
Residency
Welcome from Dr. Louis Nykamp, Residency Program Director
I am so glad to welcome you to learn more about the Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services/MSU psychiatry residency training program. Please look closely at our program and all it has to offer for you who are talented, inquisitive, motivated applicants who have a heart for patient care. Here you will find excellent clinical training from dedicated faculty, with emphasis on fostering continuous curiosity about your patients, the literature, and the latest research. You will have opportunities here to see and learn the full depth and breadth of psychiatric care exercised with compassion and dedication for the purpose of bringing healing to the hurting and resilience to the recuperating.
The setting for this experience is second to none- and a unique one in this day and age. Our beautiful, wooded campus of over 200 acres harbors nearly 200 inpatient hospital beds and positions us as one of the largest freestanding psychiatric hospitals in the country.
We have deep roots at Pine Rest of providing excellent psychiatric care to the community for over 100 years, a heritage that has allowed us to branch into many specialized services including:
- 36 bed child and adolescent unit
- 26 bed “Flex” unit for adolescents and young adults
- 26 bed Older Adult unit
- Specialized inpatient, detox and residential programs for the care of substance use disorders
- Psychological and neuropsychological testing services
- Forensic services
- Neuromodulation services
- Partial hospitalization including a highly unique Mother/Baby PHP program serving women in the peripartum
- An onsite pharmacy
- Long term residential homes
Beyond our main campus our outpatient network is comprised of 19 clinics and hundreds of clinicians who provide over 300,000 visits annually serving much of west, southwest, and northern Michigan. Our response to the needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has made us a leader in providing robust telepsychiatry and teletherapy services encompassing most of Michigan. We have numerous specialized outpatient programs including addiction services, employee assistance, church outreach, dialectical behavioral therapy, and healthy living groups.
Outstanding educational opportunities
The staff you will work with here are experienced and dedicated. They put the needs of the patient foremost, and they will expect, encourage, and inspire you to be curious about your patients. Sometimes that curiosity manifests simply as additional reading-up on symptoms, bringing that knowledge back to rounds and to the bedside for direct positive impact on patient care. Other ignited curiosity might propel you toward development of a research question or quality improvement project- leading to further mentorships and accomplishments. Pine Rest residents have presented posters and papers locally, nationally and internationally. They routinely present at our well-attended weekly journal clubs and case conferences. Residents have protected didactic time. Research opportunities at Pine Rest tend to be clinically focused and translational, taking advantage of the available mentorships and benefiting from the volume and variety of clinical care we provide to inform excellent research questions. You will be encouraged to foster inquisitiveness.
Community collaboration
As a freestanding psychiatric hospital in existence for over 100 years, we are woven into the fabric of the Grand Rapids community. We have robust collaborations with community healthcare partners across a vibrant healthcare community consisting of multiple health systems.
Medical educational opportunities are so prevalent here in West Michigan area that it attracted Michigan State University College of Human Medicine to expand to a second campus in Grand Rapids. Pine Rest has long partnered with MSU/CHM as one of its largest sites for medical student psychiatry rotations. The VanAndel Research Institute and MSU Grand Rapids Research Center attract renown scientists to the area from all over the world.
Community partnerships with other healthcare organizations allow us to add depth and richness to the residency and fellowship experiences with experiences in consultation liaison psychiatry, palliative and hospice services, senior care, child and adolescent programming, and public sector psychiatric services. Collaborations with local courts, jails, and prisons allow for forensic experiences. Pine Rest is well connected in the community, and it reflects in our training opportunities.
Demand for high quality psychiatric care
You are wise to be considering the field of psychiatry. The confluence of high demand for psychiatric services with a relative dearth of providers means you are needed. You are necessary. You will be able to put your training to work. Clinical leaders are needed in the field to insist on high-quality psychiatric care, and to create a future of access for those who have remained marginalized and stigmatized. We’ve recently passed a grim milestone with a record-setting year for drug overdose deaths. Communities, families, individuals are hurting, and psychiatric needs are acute – now is the time to mobilize into a career on the front lines of psychiatric care.
Grand Rapids as a great place to live and work
Grand Rapids, and West Michigan in general, consistently rank among the best places to live. Grand Rapids is a growing and vibrant metropolitan area and celebrates arts, sciences, food, beverage, and cultural diversity. It is a perfect place to train comprehensively yet find balance with fulfilling activities outside of work. We have the good fortune of living on a peninsula – drive in almost any direction for a while and you’ll hit a beautiful shoreline. Explore the hundreds of miles of bicycle trails, mountain bike parks, sandy dunes and beaches, wind, waves, boating, sailing, paddleboarding, kayaking, hiking, skiing, sporting events, food, culture, vineyards, small towns, antiques, shopping from upscale to down-home, farmer’s markets, orchards, cider mills, nature preserves, flower festivals.
Grand Rapids not big enough? We’re 2.5 hours from Detroit and Chicago for your weekend explorations. This is a great place to live. It was a relative secret for a long time, but the word is out.
Organizational commitment to training excellence
The administration of Pine Rest showed 100% resolve when it decided to launch and support a graduate training program. That dedication and resolve has been unwavering. Staff and administrators alike appreciate the richness and enthusiasm that the Pine Rest/MSU residents and fellows bring to the table, they are valued across the organization for bringing perspective and energy not only to the direct care of patients but the running of the hospital. Trainees are incorporated into important committees and work-groups to give them experience of participating in the inner-workings of a large multidisciplinary and multi-faceted behavioral health system, preparing them for a future of leadership and teamwork.
Sincerely,
Louis Nykamp MD
Pine Rest/MSU Residency Director
Pine Rest Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Director
Board Certified in Adult and Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine
Residency Program Overview
Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services serves over 40,000 individuals each year in inpatient, outpatient and residential services.
Surrounded by a beautiful campus environment, psychiatry residents train in state-of-the-art clinical and educational facilities.
Residents will have opportunities to engage in research and train with specialists in:
- Addiction Psychiatry
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
- Geropsychiatry
- Neuromodulation
- Neuropsychiatry
- Psychosomatic medicine
The mission of the Pine Rest Psychiatry Residency Program is to provide high quality education and excellent clinical services. The goal is to prepare comprehensively trained psychiatrists for the provision of evidenced-based treatment and compassionate care.
We received full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), in affiliation with the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, in April 2013. We currently accept 10 residents per class into the general program and 2 residents per class into the rural track program.
We are in the process of developing a women’s health track as well as a research track with a proposed implementation date of July 2023.
About Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Founded in 1964, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine is a community-based medical school, providing students with comprehensive training in clinical settings that most closely parallel the environments in which most physicians practice. First and second-year students begin the program in either Grand Rapids or on the campus of MSU in East Lansing. Clinical experience is provided in six community campuses at 13 leading hospitals throughout the state. Students in the Pine Rest MSU College of Human Medicine Psychiatry Residency program can expect to be teaching College of Human Medicine students.
For more information, visit the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Web site at www.humanmedicine.msu.edu.
PGY1
Adult Inpatient Psychiatry | 24 weeks
This rotation provides residents the opportunity to learn to evaluate and treat patients with diverse diagnoses including major mental illness, co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and those who require further diagnostic evaluation. Residents will complete this experience on various adult units.
Primary Care | 16 weeks
The primary care experience includes inpatient medicine and pediatrics rotations at Pine Rest as well as a year-long, half day per week experience in an outpatient primary care setting in the community.
Neurology | 4 weeks
A neurology inpatient rotation at a local acute care hospital and an outpatient neurology experience are included. Residents will learn to perform consultations and follow up care under the supervision of neurologists.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | 4 weeks
Residents will rotate in our adolescent partial hospitalization program where they will get to support adolescents with varying diagnoses in an intensive day treatment program. This setting allows residents to work alongside the treatment team, adolescents, and their caregivers to apply treatment skills when teens transition home in the evenings.
Geriatric Psychiatry | 4 weeks
Residents will assess and treat patients on a 26-bed inpatient geriatric unit. This unit includes a 10-bed close observation area.
Elective | 4 weeks
Residents can select from a variety of rotations related to their specific area of interest to get additional exposure early on in their training. Elective opportunities include pain medicine, perinatal mood disorders, child and adolescent psychiatry, outpatient pediatrics, and integrative medicine.
PGY2/PGY3
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | 4 weeks
Pine Rest’s 36-bed inpatient child and adolescent unit treats patients ages 3 through 17. This rotation allows for opportunities to work alongside the child and adolescent fellows.
Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry | 8 weeks
Residents will learn how to provide consultation and liaison services at acute care hospitals in the community. Consulting with the referring physician and conducting evaluations of patients in acute care settings will occur under the supervision of faculty psychiatrists.
Geriatric Psychiatry | 4 weeks
Residents will assess and treat patients on a 26-bed inpatient geriatric unit. This unit includes a 10-bed close observation unit.
Addiction Psychiatry | 8 weeks
The addiction rotation provides education in a wide variety of settings. This includes assessment and care of patients in an outpatient addiction clinic and detoxification services. Residents will also have exposure to a 12-bed short-term residential unit for those who no longer need detoxification services but could benefit from a continued stay in a residential setting, for example.
Neurology | 4 weeks
A neurology inpatient rotation at a local acute care hospital and an outpatient neurology experience are included. Residents will learn to perform consultations and follow up care under the supervision of neurologists.
Outpatient Psychiatry | 52 weeks
The Loeks Residency Center on Pine Rest’s main campus provides supervised experience in the assessment, pharmacotherapy, and psychotherapy of adults and children in an outpatient setting. Supervision is provided by faculty psychiatrists who have experience in a variety of modalities in addition to a doctoral level psychologist dedicated to psychotherapy training. For those interested in child and adolescent psychiatry, residents have the opportunity to see more child and adolescent patients.
The outpatient experience begins with a half-day per week for PGY2s leading up to the year-long rotation (rolling start in PG2 year) and followed up with a half-day per week through the remainder of residency.
Community Psychiatry | 52 weeks
As part of the year-long outpatient clinic rotation, residents will receive training through one of the following community psychiatry experiences: rural telepsychiatry through Community Mental Health for Central Michigan, treatment of patients in specialized adult foster care and long-term residential treatment programs, or adults with severe and persistent mental illness.
Emergency Psychiatry | 4 weeks
This important rotation teaches residents to quicky form a therapeutic alliance with patients and families in crisis. This is followed by assessing immediate safety factors for the patient, the resident, and the staff and take appropriate steps to conduct a medical and psychiatric evaluation. Residents learn emergency psychopharmacology and psychotherapeutic techniques, along with appropriate level of treatment for patients before the patient leaves the evaluation.
Psychological Consultation Center | 4 weeks
During this rotation, residents are exposed to a variety of psychological assessments and testing including ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, neuropsychological testing, and forensic evaluations. They learn what tests to order and when as well as gain an understanding of how they are administered and interpreted.
Perinatal Mood Disorders | 4 weeks
Residents have the unique opportunity to work at our Mother Baby Partial Hospitalization Program, which is a day treatment program dedicated to pregnant and postpartum women. Residents will learn how to assess and treat primarily mood and anxiety disorders in this special population.
Night Float | 4 weeks
During this rotation, residents work closely with social workers and nurses to review relevant history and laboratory and diagnostic studies to determine appropriateness for admission to the hospital, both from a psychiatric and medical standpoint. Residents gain exposure to and increased familiarity with risk assessment and safety planning as well as physical restraints and seclusions as they manage urgent safety concerns on the units. Residents work Sunday night through Friday morning during the 4-week rotation.
Elective | 8 weeks
Residents can choose from a variety of rotations at Pine Rest or within the community to further their education in a particular area of interest. Examples of elective opportunities include eating disorders, forensic psychiatry, perinatal mood disorders, adult/child inpatient psychiatry, and sleep medicine.
PGY4
Administration/Teaching | 4 weeks
This rotation provides residents with the opportunity to supervise junior trainees in an outpatient setting. You will function as an attending as you will evaluate and give feedback on residents’ interactions with patients, residents’ productivity, and their decisions regarding treatment options. You will then be able to collaborate with the attending psychiatrist.
Electives | 16 weeks
Residents can select any of the above rotations for their electives to gain additional knowledge and experience. Other elective opportunities in the community include sleep medicine, methadone clinic, adolescent medicine, college psychiatry, eating disorders, and pain medicine.
Adult Partial Hospitalization| 4 weeks
Residents provide psychiatric care for patients participating in this intensive outpatient, group-based treatment program targeted to adults of all ages struggling with issues such as mood symptoms, anxiety, and various psychosocial stressors.
Emergency Psychiatry | 8 weeks
During this rotation, residents evaluate patients in our Psychiatric Urgent Care Center (PUCC), which is a walk-in clinic for adults 18+ seeking urgent psychiatric services including level of care determination (outpatient, partial, inpatient), social work assessment, psychiatric assessment, and resources and education. The hours for this rotation are typically 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Neuromodulation (ECT/TMS) | 4 weeks
Pine Rest is the site of a robust neuromodulation clinic, serving patients in West Michigan as well as across the state. The ECT Clinic provides nearly 100 treatments per week to both inpatients and outpatients. The TMS Clinic has three treatment chairs with the capacity to serve up to 21 patients. During this rotation, residents will participate in hundreds of ECT treatments, provide consultation for initiation of ECT and TMS, and learn how to determine treatment settings for TMS.
Correctional Psychiatry | 4 weeks
Residents rotate with a psychiatrist at two local county jails – Kent County Correctional Facility and Calhoun County Jail. On this rotation, residents learn introductory information about the legal system, gain a better understanding of factors that contribute to incarceration, and get experience providing psychiatric treatment with restricted formularies.
Adult Inpatient Psychiatry | 12 weeks
As a senior resident on the inpatient units, residents act as junior attendings and have additional opportunities for teaching and mentoring medical students and junior residents.
Outpatient Psychiatry | One half day per week
Residents continue with an outpatient caseload after completing the year-long outpatient clinic rotation to allow for a long-term care experience.
Didactics
Residents participate in weekly didactics covering various topics throughout the course of the training program.
PGY1
- Addiction Psychiatry
- Anxiety Disorders
- Forensic Psychiatry
- Internal Medicine
- Interviewing Techniques, Mental Status Exam, and Psychiatric Formulation
- Introductory Psychopharmacology
- Mood Disorders and Suicidality
- Clinical Neurology, Neuroanatomy, Neuroscience
- Pediatrics
- Physician Development and Resilience
- Professionalism and Ethics
- Psychodynamic Principles
- Psychological Assessment
- Psychotic Disorders
- Transcultural Psychiatry, including Religion, Spirituality, and Worldview
- Research Methods and Statistics
- Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
PGY2
- Basic Principles of Psychotherapy, including acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, family and marital therapy, group therapy, interpersonal therapy, motivational interviewing, psychodynamic therapy, supportive therapy
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Developmental Models
- Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
- Forensic Psychiatry
- Geriatric Psychiatry
- History of Psychiatry
- Neuromodulation (ECT/TMS)
- Neuroscience, including Brain Imaging
- Women’s Health
PGY3
- Advanced Psychiatric Diagnosis
- Advanced Principles of Psychotherapy
- Advanced Psychopharmacology
- Adverse Drug Reactions
- Administrative Psychiatry
- Career and Professional Development
- Clinical Neurology, Neuroscience
- Reviewing and Conducting Research
- Suboxone Training and Certification
PGY4
- Administrative Psychiatry
- Career and Professional Development
- Collaborative Care
- Complementary and Alternative Medications
- Forensic Psychiatry
- LGBTQ+
- Clinical Neurology, Neuroscience
- Physicians as Leaders
- Transition to Practice
All PGYs
- Case Conference
- Grand Rounds
- Journal Club
- Morbidity and Mortality
- PRITE Review
A stipend is provided at each PG level in the following amount:
PGY1: $63,487
PGY2: $65,467
PGY3: $67,534
PGY4: $69,905
Benefits are as follows:
Eighteen (18) PTO days are allowed for residents at each level. An additional five (5) days of PTO are provided to each resident either during the week of Christmas or the week of New Years, as assigned by the program.
Twenty (20) wellness hours are provided for all residents each academic year.
Conference Time is allowed for PGY2 residents and above, for one conference per year, up to one week or five (5) CME days.
Conference/Academic/Book Allowance is provided to residents up to $2,000 per year.
Employee Assistance Program at Pine Rest offers confidential individual or family counseling, grief and substance abuse support, financial advising, and other services.
Free parking is provided on Pine Rest grounds.
Food service is available in the cafeteria and in the Resident Lounge.
Pine Rest provides a laptop and pager app (Spok mobile).
Pine Rest provides two lab coats at the beginning of the program to residents.
Pine Rest provides Professional Liability Insurance with tail coverage.
Pine Rest provides athletic club membership discounts at the YMCA and MVP sports clubs.
See additional health, dental, vision, retirement, life insurance, and other benefits here.
This is only intended to be a general overview of the current benefits programs at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services/Michigan State University Psychiatry Residency, and it is subject to change.
Updated April 2024.
