Des Moines hospitals counter critical psychiatrist shortage by training their own

Chris Stephan was in his first week of training as an Iowa psychiatrist when a patient asked him a central question: “Why are you doing it?”

It was a July morning at Broadlawns Medical Center, which is helping start one of two groundbreaking psychiatric residency programs in Des Moines.

Stephan, 36, a Navy veteran and recent Des Moines University medical school graduate, is part of a wave of young doctors who want to help the country’s tattered mental health system. He’s one of eight successful applicants out of more than 1,000 medical school graduates who applied to begin four years of training in Des Moines’ new psychiatry residency programs. Read more...