The Psychiatry Residency Training Program at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center


We welcome your interest in the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center's Psychiatry Residency Program. Our program is one of the most prominent and most well respected in the area. Our program gives the psychiatric residents clinical experience in adult, geriatric, addiction, and child psychiatry and provides sound theoretical and clinical training and establishes a foundation for future specialization. The educational philosophy of our program is eclectic, with a variety of diagnostic and treatment approaches. The interdisciplinary nature of our clinical department introduces the trainees to a wide range of well-grounded theories and therapies. Under the guidance and supervision of experienced faculty, the residents gain broad clinical expertise in caring for and treating a diverse patient population.

If you are interested in a psychiatry training program in the New Jersey/New York/Connecticut tri-state area and desire to be close to New York City, we urge you to consider Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. We look forward to meeting you.

Location

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center sits upon a beautiful park-like 65-acre campus conveniently located within 20 minutes of New York City and all of the Big Apple's world-renowned museums, theaters, art galleries, elite medical centers, and institutions of higher learning.

Faculty

Bergen New Bridge is delighted to host the tri-state area's exceptional teaching faculty, including experienced New Jersey staff psychiatrists and internationally renowned visiting professors from Cornell, Columbia, Mount Sinai, New York, and Albert Einstein schools of medicine. 

Psychiatric Department Building

We conduct your training in a brightly lit, cheerful building specifically designed to meet the particular needs of a diverse psychiatric patient population. The inpatient unit consists of Building 14, which has 13 small units for acutely ill patients and Building 12, with two larger units for sub-acute patients.

Patient Population

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center serves patients of all ages and socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. Illnesses range from adjustment disorders to acute psychosis and dementia. The residents and the medical students learn to diagnose and treat all types of psychiatric patients.

Subspecialty Experience

The Department of Psychiatry consists of distinct subspecialty services, staffed by trained psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. The subspecialty units are:

  • Child/adolescent
  • Psychogeriatric
  • Addiction
  • C/L
  • Forensic
  • Emergency psychiatry

Residents and Faculty

The residents, faculty, and mental health professionals at Bergen New Bridge constitute a cohesive and supportive family. The emotional atmosphere is relaxed and conducive to personal growth and learning. Residents, medical students, and teachers enjoy Friday lunches together, an annual family barbeque and picnic, the holiday Dinner & Dance, and the graduation party.

Scholarly Activities

Under the Director of Clinical Research and the faculty, all residents develop research hypotheses, write protocols, and conduct research trials. They regularly present at local, regional, and national psychiatric meetings and are encouraged to publish their work. Bergen New Bridge Medical Center residents have won the annual NJPA Best Papers Contest for several years.

Professional Leadership Opportunities

All residents join APA from the beginning of their training at Bergen New Bridge. You will be involved with the issues facing physicians in general and psychiatrist and their patients in particular. Our residents have been elected presidents of NJPA - Residents Chapter for the past several years.

Contact Us


For further Psychiatry Residency Training program information or inquiries about our medical students’ education and research, please contact:
 
Joel Reed
Coordinator Psychiatry Residency Training Program

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center
230 East Ridgewood Avenue, Paramus, NJ 07652

Phone: 201-967-4132

Email Us

Message from the Director

Monica Dhingra, MD
Director of Psychiatry Residency Training
, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center

Monica Dhingra, MD

Director of Psychiatry Residency Training

“Self-Care is not selfish. One cannot serve from an empty vessel.” - Eleanor Brown

In postgraduate training programs, wellness initiatives are increasingly recognized as essential to a resident’s training. It is well established that the postgraduate training environment is complex with numerous stressors, including understanding work and life responsibilities, juggling personal and professional demands, lack of control over time, and just navigating challenges related to medicine, psychiatry, community resources, and patient care. The American Medical Association recommends wellness initiatives should:

  • Recognize and address suboptimal aspects of the learning environment, and
  • Train residents in resilience skills.

Here at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center’s Psychiatry Residency Program, we recognize the effect residents’ wellness can have on patient care. We started our own ‘Resident Wellness Committee’ in 2020, comprising resident representatives from each postgraduate year. With faculty and senior administration support, ongoing efforts are being made to improve the residents’ learning environment. These efforts include continually monitoring residents’ workload, providing them autonomy and adequate supervision, balancing reward and effort, and instilling fairness and values. Our Resident Wellness Committee dedicates time to providing resources and organizing team-building activities to help residents’ morale, stay physically and emotionally healthy, and develop and maintain good habits for the future. Whether it is a treasure hunt, hosting a picnic at Van Saun Park, pumpkin picking, or canvas painting, these activities are intended to improve the health and happiness of the residents at Bergen New Bridge. Incorporating educational classes about mindfulness and the benefits of yoga and meditation are some other ventures practiced in postgraduate training.

But why provide wellness initiatives at the postgraduate training level? Bergen New Bridge employees can also benefit from wellness activities. The Five Pillars of Wellness include Mind, Rest, Diet, Movement, and Community. Each of these pillars represents an essential component for achieving life balance.

  • Mind: Mindfulness and meditation are indispensable tools to help unplug (literally and figuratively) everything around us, bringing peace and calm to the mind.
  • Rest: Focusing on the quality and quantity of sleep can improve mental health and cognitive functioning.
  • Diet: “You are what you eat.” Both quantity and quality of foods play a role in our gut health and, by extension, our wellness.
  • Movement: The benefits of exercise — and the subsequent release of endorphins — are found in physical health and mental and emotional well-being.
  • Community: As social creatures, humans benefit from interactions with other like-minded people and a connection to a collective purpose towards a happy and purposeful life.

I leave you with these tips to carve out and claim the time to care for yourself and kindle your fire! Remember…one cannot serve from an empty vessel.

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