Interested in Psychiatry, but unsure

[Malknar]

I posted this in other website, would like different views.

I love the knowledge of field itself. Good lifestyle is important to me. I like that it provides an opportunity to work in private setting. I also like it's not as "settled" as other medical fields.

The problems:

1-I'm not sure about the practice of the field. The idea that I'll speak to patients for a long time sounds... Unappealing.

2- I LOVE working with statistics, so I'm consdering having a preventive medicine residency, or have it as a fellowship after psychiatry, but I'm not sure if that's possible .

Alternativley, I thought to get a master of public health in biostatistics online during psychiatry residency, but I'm not sure if that is tenable, especially since I'm not a US-citizen nor do I live in the US.

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[Shikima]

Your country of origin's health dept would be lucky to have you in monitoring disease rates where you are locally.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

I posted this in other website, would like different views.


The problems:

1-I'm not sure about the practice of the field. The idea that I'll speak to patients for a long time sounds... Unappealing.

Please do not go into psychiatry. Even if it the only thing you can get into, do not do it. You will not like it and it will not like you. Lose lose all around.

 

[milesed]

If you don't like talking to patients, may need to look into Rad, Derm, etc.

 

[Frazier]

+3

Having the stance: "the idea that I'll speak to patients for a long time sounds... Unappealing."

...and then choosing Psych (very likely the most talk-heavy field in medicine) makes little sense.

 

[LoudBark]

I posted this in other website, would like different views.



The idea that I'll speak to patients for a long time sounds... Unappealing.

.

This is like a med student saying: " I really love, love surgery......but the idea of being in the OR....unappealing."

 

[Shikima]

What about a new field - surgical psychiatry?

I'll cut that depression out of you! Or is that too similar to - The beatings will continue until morale improves?

 

[psych72]

Please do not go into psychiatry. Even if it the only thing you can get into, do not do it. You will not like it and it will not like you. Lose lose all around.

Well, I don't know much about "long" periods of time. There are a lot of psychiatrists, especially on the inpatient units, who don't spend much time with the patients "talking", they just do the basic interview stuff, and the therapist does the rest of it. Training aside, once your done, you can taylor your practice to what you prefer. Although, I do think that a good psychiatrist, should have a good background in therapy.

 

[Malknar]

Looks like people here misunderstood me, so let me approach the issue in a different way:

Was anyone here (or know someone who was) unsure about the practice of psychiatry, or found talking with people draining, but with time was able to get used to it?

 

[Dharma]

Looks like people here misunderstood me, so let me approach the issue in a different way:

Was anyone here (or know someone who was) unsure about the practice of psychiatry, or found talking with people draining, but with time was able to get used to it?

If you find talking with people draining, best to look elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, some people are draining, no doubt... but one needs to learn how to prevent oneself from being drained. But in general, you shouldn't feel drained talking with patients. If you're already at that point as a student, how bad is that going to get once your knee deep in mood disorders?

My fear is that there are going to many who are attracted to the field for all reasons besides actual psychiatry. Word is getting around that it's a nice life... but are these folks truly interested in the field... and most importantly its patients?

 

[F0nzie]

OP will have fun with my last patient. I asked him 5 times how many brothers he had until I finally got the answer. He wanted me to know everything about his brothers BUT the answer to my question. So I sat through 5 long winded clinically irrelevant stories and interrupted him 5 times before I could write down in his social history that he has 2 brothers. Fortunately I did not piss him off by cutting him off but he literally would not stop. Ordinarily I would move on but I was feeling extra patient today. You can imagine how the rest of the interview went. lol.

 

[Jorje286]

Have you had any clinical experience with psychiatry? If you haven't yet, it's impossible to answer the question. The thing is, I think people outside the field have a bit of misunderstanding with psych. It's not passive listening and then trying to have a chit-chat. It's a very dynamic process. You will have to listen, feel and observe all at the same time, and interject and guide the process at the right moment. What you see and what is not said is often just as important as what you hear.

 

[psych72]

OP will have fun with my last patient. I asked him 5 times how many brothers he had until I finally got the answer. He wanted me to know everything about his brothers BUT the answer to my question. So I sat through 5 long winded clinically irrelevant stories and interrupted him 5 times before I could write down in his social history that he has 2 brothers. Fortunately I did not piss him off by cutting him off but he literally would not stop. Ordinarily I would move on but I was feeling extra patient today. You can imagine how the rest of the interview went. lol.

You definitely seem very patient compared to some of the attendings I had when I did my audition rotation. One of them, who I was working with, was super rough with patients when he didn't get the requested answer and would get ready to leave. Ironically, he was very successful with a lot of cases I had seen as he would make firm boundaries and would try and interrupt and interject whenever he wanted. I thought he was very stubborn and rigid, but I guess I'm too much of a softy and can spend hours listening to a patient, just because I feel like I'm a pushover...i hope that this tendency will change as I progress through training, but I certainly don't want some of the cluster B's to drain me by emotionally sucking me like a vampire.

 

[sunlioness]

Looks like people here misunderstood me, so let me approach the issue in a different way:

Was anyone here (or know someone who was) unsure about the practice of psychiatry, or found talking with people draining, but with time was able to get used to it?

If you find it draining now, chances are it will only get worse as you do it day in and day out.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

OP will have fun with my last patient. I asked him 5 times how many brothers he had until I finally got the answer. He wanted me to know everything about his brothers BUT the answer to my question. So I sat through 5 long winded clinically irrelevant stories and interrupted him 5 times before I could write down in his social history that he has 2 brothers. Fortunately I did not piss him off by cutting him off but he literally would not stop. Ordinarily I would move on but I was feeling extra patient today. You can imagine how the rest of the interview went. lol.

There are times when I'm on inpatient asking myself "Do I really want to ask this question?" because I know it's going to have a 5 minute answer that isn't necessarily going to illuminate the patient's diagnosis or treatment to any appreciable degree.

 

[Leo Aquarius]

The thought of standing in a cold operating room for 2 or 3 hours at a time sounded very .... unappealing.

That's why I didn't go into surgery. Talking to patients is our operating room in psychiatry. You should at least enjoy it. (I do)

 

[Achillees]

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[Ceke2002]

OP will have fun with my last patient. I asked him 5 times how many brothers he had until I finally got the answer. He wanted me to know everything about his brothers BUT the answer to my question. So I sat through 5 long winded clinically irrelevant stories and interrupted him 5 times before I could write down in his social history that he has 2 brothers. Fortunately I did not piss him off by cutting him off but he literally would not stop. Ordinarily I would move on but I was feeling extra patient today. You can imagine how the rest of the interview went. lol.

So you'd just love having me as a patient then?

"Yap yap yap *completely irrelevant tangent*, yap yap yap, *more completely irrelevant tangents*..." Thankfully my Psychiatrist does somehow manage to keep up, and direct traffic at the same time, but sitting in on one of our more conversationally energetic sessions is a bit like playing 'follow the bouncing ball'.

 

[Kingdom Come]

I hate to reply to a month old thread, but anyways, I can see where your mindset is as far as being drained by speaking with patients. However, I will say there is a thin line between "talking to a patient" and generally being a great listener. If you find yourself as a person that is genuinely concerned whenever someone comes to you for advice in real life situations and whatnot, then I say give it a shot; that alone could muster up a clear answer for you.

A psychiatrist's motive is generally to lift and enrich a patient's mental health, but in order to do so I believe you have to want to listen and interview others. I feel it differs than most practices in medicine and requires a little bit more compassion and a yearning to instill emotional trust in a patient. Although, that is not to say that there are several other physicians that possess the same qualities or to cast them as less compassionate simply based on what they practice. That's my thought process at least. Lol