Annual Publication 2025 FINAL 05292025 accessible - Flipbook - Page 47
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Originally from Tempe, Arizona, Dr. Chen 昀椀rst joined the
school of medicine as a resident in the psychiatry program
after earning her doctor of osteopathic medicine from Touro
University Nevada. After residency, Dr. Chen left the state to
complete a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at Oregon Health
and Science University, and after her fellowship she had to
decide where she wanted to practice.
For Dr. Chen, coming back to Las Vegas was one of the 昀椀rst
things that came to her mind. The city was not far from Arizona,
where her parents currently live, and she made friendships
and connections in the city that she wanted to keep. Also
in昀氀uencing her decision to come back to Las Vegas were her
positive experiences in the school of medicine’s psychiatry
residency program.
Dr. Chen cites many reasons she liked the residency program,
such as the exposure to a “variety and breadth of different
patient types with different pathology;” the stress put on
residents being reasonable and allowing her to learn everything
necessary to be a good psychiatrist; and the assistance and
encouragement from faculty members who really just wanted
to help her succeed and become the doctor she wanted to be.
“… There were faculty members, as I went through my residency,
that left lasting marks on me and really helped me develop
and 昀椀gure out what kind of psychiatrist I wanted to be when I
昀椀nished … I had interest in going into forensic psychiatry, and
the program was really supportive of that,” Dr. Chen states. “I
was able to have enough time and 昀氀exibility in order to learn
more about forensic psychiatry and make sure that was really
what I wanted to do before I ended up going to fellowship.”
This preparation, training, and support she received paid off
as Dr. Chen received glowing remarks during her fellowship
interviews and from her fellowship director.
“… My fellowship director would often make comments like, ‘I
can tell that you’ve done competency evaluations before as a
resident,’ or even when I interviewed for fellowship programs,
I would get comments like, ‘You have a lot more forensic
exposure than we would expect for a resident,’” Dr. Chen says.
“I think that was really like a credit to our residency program
that residents can be supported to pursue their interests.”
PHOTO: IRIS BOOTH
ne of the main goals of the Kirk Kerkorian
School of Medicine at UNLV and its graduate
medical education (GME) programs is
educating doctors that stay in Nevada and
care for its people. Already, the school of
medicine is starting to see this goal come to
fruition with doctors like Caitlin Chen, DO – assistant professor
and associate residency program director in the Kirk Kerkorian
School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Health – being a perfect example.
CAITLIN CHEN, DO
With all these things in mind, Dr. Chen ended up returning to
Las Vegas and to the school of medicine. “I felt like I had such
a wonderful training experience here that I wanted to return
and try and help ensure that future trainees would have an
equally wonderful experience, so I was thrilled to be hired as
faculty and to be able to return,” she says.
Currently, Dr. Chen’s clinical work involves seeing and treating
patients at Stein Hospital, UNLV Health Mojave Counseling,
and University Medical Center (UMC). Academically, she is able
to train the residents in the school of medicine’s psychiatry
residency program and help them with anything they need –
similar to how there were faculty members ready to help her
when she was a trainee.
“I feel like it’s a good position to be in as someone who is a
former trainee because I understand how the program works,”
Dr. Chen states. “… I knew of certain lectures that went over
really well with the residents or lecturers that the residents
really enjoyed hearing from, so I’m able to make sure that those
things get incorporated into their didactic sessions going
forward.”
When it comes to the state’s investment in graduate medical
education (GME) programs, Dr. Chen says, “Particularly within
psychiatry, there is a shortage of psychiatrists in the state of
Nevada. I think it’s important that the state invests in residency
programs like our residency program, so that way we cannot
only recruit people like me (I’m not from Nevada originally, but
yet here I am), [but] also retain the people that we train here.”
SUMMER 2025 MAGAZINE
47
