Our newly accredited rural psychiatry residency program is rural training at its finest, with the perfect blend of educational opportunities positioned amid a number of medically underserved counties in the Northeast Texas region. A large percentage of medically underserved counties in Northeast Texas lack access to healthcare, and UT Tyler School of Medicine continues to provide solutions through its residency programs.
In 2016, the rural family medicine program, after which the rural psychiatry program is modeled, began to reach outside the boundaries of Smith County. The curriculum of the rural psychiatry residency program is designed for its first-year residents to be woven into the urban program. This lays the groundwork for camaraderie with fellow residents and knowledge of the network of hospitals and clinics in the UT Health East Texas system. However, in their second year of training, the rural residents begin to focus on providing care in Pittsburg, Quitman and neighboring communities like Camp, Wood and Marion counties.
Over the course of the four-year training program, more than 50 percent of the rotations take place in designated rural settings. Physician shortages in rural areas are a concern for Texas, where we lead the nation in rural hospital closures. A common thread our residency programs share is retention of our program graduates. As the need continues for healthcare providers in Texas, UT Tyler continues to seek and train the very best residents to continue the legacy of healthcare in Northeast Texas.