4th year rotations/Life in Psychiatry Residency

[postbacpremed87]

This is a two fold question:

* What electives should one take in their 4th year of med school if they know they want to do psychiatry. I know psychiatry should be front loaded since you need LORs. Maybe an EM, IM, FM, Neuro rotation to prepare for intern year?

* What are the hours like in psych residency. I know it is program dependent and rotation dependent. Is it something like this for the avg:
Year 1 - 60 hours
Year 2 - 50 hours
Year 3 - 40 hours
Year 4 - 36-40 hours

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[slappy]

Yes and yes.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Fourth year medical students should do whatever they are interested in once they have matched. I suggest anything but psychiatry, you will get your fill of psych soon enough. Besides what if you find you don’t like it so much, you are contractually bound and this is no time to start doubting your direction.

I suggest neurology if you haven’t done much, maybe neuroradiology. I wish I had done derm. Do something fun that you will never get to see again. Last chance to play "real doctor" (sarcasm).

 

[milesed]

I did Derm, child psyc and developmental peds (intending to do child psyc).

 

[NickNaylor]

Apart from my sub-I (psych) and required ER rotation I've done no clinical work. Do what you want and what you're required to do to graduate.

 

[VMSmith]

If you want to do a few rotations that can help prepare you for intern year, I suggest a medicine sub-I and neurology. Psych sub-I is usually more for LORs.

Then just do whatever you want, whether that means rotations in things that interest you or rotations that give you lots of free time. You'll be busy next year, might as well enjoy yourself.

 

[Mass Effect]

This is a two fold question:

* What electives should one take in their 4th year of med school if they know they want to do psychiatry. I know psychiatry should be front loaded since you need LORs. Maybe an EM, IM, FM, Neuro rotation to prepare for intern year?

Do medicine and neuro. These will help.

* What are the hours like in psych residency. I know it is program dependent and rotation dependent. Is it something like this for the avg:
Year 1 - 60 hours
Year 2 - 50 hours
Year 3 - 40 hours
Year 4 - 36-40 hours

I don't know what the average is, but I'm an intern and I work 50 hours or less each week on psych.

 

[Asklepian]

Personally, I thought it would be nice to broaden my horizons about what I may anticipate going into within the field, so I've done several Psych Subspecialty Sub-Is as well as a month of Emergency Med, a month of IM, and a few months of research. Just do what you want!

 

[Bartelby]

Toxicology and neurology are excellent choices for fourth year. Also consider psychiatric subspecialty rotations like child, forensics, geriatrics if you have a particular interest already so that you can get the exposure (for instance, you may not get any specific "forensic" rotation until PGY-IV which is quite late to apply). Consider taking some research time to get a publication or two, and to learn about research methods. I also agree with generalist rotations such as IM, ER and family medicine, on inpatient and CL sharper general skills will help out quite a bit and throughout intern year they will be essential.

Also find out some fun and easy rotations in addition to the more practical ones. Fourth year usually is (and really should be) great, be sure to enjoy it before launching into intern year!

 

[Kevin Baker]

My school has us do a sub I in surgery which sounds crappy but we only have 4 weeks of gen surg so I can't complain. I did neurosurg which I highly recommend. You get a good mix of neuro and neuro radiology in wards and clinic, and see lots of behavioral issues many of which were diagnosed as psych issues. It'll definitely widen your differential

 

[Merovinge]

This is a two fold question:

* What electives should one take in their 4th year of med school if they know they want to do psychiatry. I know psychiatry should be front loaded since you need LORs. Maybe an EM, IM, FM, Neuro rotation to prepare for intern year?

* What are the hours like in psych residency. I know it is program dependent and rotation dependent. Is it something like this for the avg:
Year 1 - 60 hours
Year 2 - 50 hours
Year 3 - 40 hours
Year 4 - 36-40 hours

I'd front load 2 psych rotations for the letters, after that do anything that is interesting/fun, M4 year is the reward for getting through years 1-3. Preferably psych sub-specalities you have interest. If you have good neuropsychiatry I would do that for sure, as it can really lack in residency training. Peds psych if you have interest (kids are fun and you may need to take care of them on call), helps make the decision to do Peds over IM intern year and/or fast-track. Forensics is great if you have the interest as that can also really lack or come late in training.

 

[Armadillos]

I think its also really helpful if you get chance to do some rotation in a well respected private practice/hospital setting of any specialty. Its incredible the difference in work atmosphere when docs can help choose their support staff, are excited to get consults/new referrals/add ons, know all their consultants socially and can just shoot them a text for help, etc. While there are certainly shady "outside hospital" situations out there, in most places its going to be known there is a certain group for each specialty thats the best of the best. I used to think these people would be in academics, but if you can get in rotating with the highly regarded group for X specialty in your city- your going to be impressed.

It may just be a lot of shadowing, but I think thats OK because its worth it to actually see what it looks like for an expert doc to practice medicine on their own instead of always working under other trainees and seeing attendings supervise others practicing medicine.