Regional Programs

The University of Washington School of Medicine is the only medical school, and we are the only Psychiatry Residency Program, for the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho), a five-state area which is largely rural and underserved. One of the goals of our residency program is to train psychiatrists to practice within this region. To this end, we offer two regional psychiatry residency programs, the Spokane and Idaho Advanced Clinician Tracks. In addition, residents from any of our programs, who would like an experience in rural psychiatry in Alaska, Montana, or Wyoming, may do elective rotations in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, Bozeman, Missoula, or Casper.

Spokane Advanced Clinician Track

The Spokane Advanced Clinician Track was founded in 1991, with the goal of training generalist psychiatrists to practice in smaller communities. Residents spend the first half of their training in Seattle, where they can take advantage of a rich academic environment as well as diverse clinical sites and patient populations, while learning the basics of inpatient, consultation-liaison, and outpatient psychiatry. The second half of training is in Spokane. Here the resident works in an integrated system of care and can choose rotations based solely on educational value. The emphasis is on training generalists, with the broad array of skills needed to practice in smaller communities and rural settings. The small resident group (6 residents in Spokane) allows an intimate learning environment, and residents are able to work closely with faculty psychiatrists who practice in the Spokane area. For details about this program, applying, and visiting Spokane, please visit the Spokane Advanced Clinician Track website.

Idaho Advanced Clinician Track

This new program, which began in July, 2007, is modeled on our existing Spokane Advanced Clinician Track, and includes two years of training in Seattle and two years in Boise, Idaho. The goal of the Idaho Advanced Clinician Track is to train excellent general psychiatrists to practice in smaller communities, with a particular emphasis on teaching residents skills in outpatient and inpatient consultation-liaison psychiatry and working effectively with primary care providers. Residents complete medicine or pediatrics, neurology, inpatient psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, child psychiatry, and subspecialty rotations (addictions, geriatrics, some consults) in Seattle, followed by rotations in outpatient psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, and consultation to primary care in Boise, at two private hospitals (St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and St. Luke's Regional Medical Center), the Boise VA, the Idaho Family Medicine Residency clinic, and a community mental health agency. These institutions also train medical students and Family Practice and Medicine residents, and so are active training settings. Boise provides a beautiful, relaxed, and very livable environment; arts and cultural events unusual in a city of its size; and outstanding nearby opportunities for outdoor recreation. For more details about this program, please visit the Idaho Advanced Clinician Track website.

Please note that both the Spokane and Idaho Tracks are separate residency programs with separate Match numbers and specific, individualized curricula.

Away Rotations

During their elective time, residents in any of our programs may choose to do 1-3 month rotations in Alaska, Montana, or Wyoming. These rotations all offer exposure to rural psychiatry, but have particular individual emphases such as cross-cultural psychiatry (Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau), private practice (Bozeman), community mental health (Missoula), or child and adolescent psychiatry (Casper). If you are interested in learning more about these rotations, please indicate this on your application or discuss this with the Residency Director on your interview day.