Dr. Andrew Baumgartner said it was an easy decision to accept a position working with two of his favorite mentors.
Dr. Baumgartner has accepted an instructor position with the UNMC Department of Psychiatry. He will also see patients at Home Instead Center for Successful Aging (HICSA) with geriatric psychiatrists Dr. Steven Wengel and Dr. Thomas Magnuson. Dr. Baumgartner said their mentorship led him to study geriatric psychiatry.
Andrew Baumgartner, M.D.
“My earliest and most consistent mentors have come from the geriatric psychiatry division,” Dr. Baumgartner said. “I enjoy working with the geriatric patient population as well as their family members and their caretakers.”
Dr. Baumgartner said Dr. Wengel and Dr. Magnuson taught him to take time to get to know the patients and their family members.
“I couldn’t be happier that Dr. Baumgartner is joining the department, and especially, the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry,” said Dr. Wengel. “I think his calm, deliberate, and thoughtful approach to patient care will serve him well with our older patients. He is a really conscientious physician and a caring person – we’re very fortunate to have him aboard.”
While Dr. Baumgartner could have been a geriatric psychiatrist anywhere, he decided to stay in Nebraska. Dr. Baumgartner graduated from the University of Nebraska-Kearney in 2009 and UNMC in 2015.
“I guess you can say my family is rooted here in Nebraska,” Dr. Baumgartner said. “Both of our families are in Nebraska. Plus, I did my training here. My mentors work here. It would have been tough to pick up and leave.”
Dr. Baumgartner will finish his residency next June and start working for UNMC on July 1, 2019.
Dr. Baumgartner wrestled at UNK on an athletic scholarship. He won two state championships at Kearney High School. While at UNMC, Dr. Baumgartner was awarded the Dr. John E. Gilmore Distinguished Scholarship, the Nellie Powley Hills & John Willard Hills Merit Scholarship, and the Robert L. Preston Merit Scholarship.