Good Samaritan will be welcoming its first round of medical residents to their Graduate Medical Education program this July.

Good Samaritan, in collaboration with Indiana University School of Medicine, will host their first white coat ceremony to welcome four psychiatry medical residents on Friday, June 21.

Residents are trainees who have completed four years of medical school and are now specializing in becoming physicians. They will have hands-on practice with patients in a supervised clinical environment. The white coat ceremony marks the transition from medical school to further training on the way to becoming practicing physicians.

Bringing psychiatry residents to the community will fulfill a medical need in the area. There is an overwhelming national shortage of psychiatrists nationwide, especially in rural areas. Addiction rates are also climbing with very few doctors to treat overdoses. “The primary focus of our program is to train our residents to serve in community settings,” said Dr. Allie Thomas-Fannin, Psychiatry Residency Program Director and Samaritan Center Psychiatrist at Good Samaritan. “The residents will train in collaborative settings with a goal of improving and expanding addictions training, including medication assisted treatment.”

In addition to the arrival of the psychiatry residents, Good Samaritan will soon begin recruiting for residents to be a part of its Internal Medicine Residency Program set to begin in 2020.

“We are so excited to welcome the first residents to our Psychiatry Residency Program,” said Rob McLin, President and CEO. “Statistics show that residents are more likely to stay and practice medicine in the towns where they completed their residency. We are optimistic that having both the Psychiatry and Internal Medicine residency here at Good Samaritan will bring more providers to the area and help with access to care in our region.”

Vincennes residents will begin to see the four psychiatry residents in the community beginning in July. As part of their rotations, the residents will not only train in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings, but also in primary care, internal medicine and emergency medicine.