MS4 elective help

[xATB]

I need to choose 1 more elective to fill my 4th year schedule and am debating between inpatient cardiology, outpatient cardiology, rheumatology, and sleep medicine. Any thoughts on which of these would be most helpful for a future psychiatrist? I was originally set on sleep medicine, but now I'm concerned that it would be too repetitive without much to learn other than sleep apnea and cpap management.

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[wolfvgang22]

I did rheum and both inpt and outpatient caridio. I never regretted any of them. If I had to choose I'd probably choose outpatient cardio personally. Kind of hard to go wrong here. Maybe pick the one that has the teachers other students recommend and learned a lot from.

 

[shan564]

I need to choose 1 more elective to fill my 4th year schedule and am debating between inpatient cardiology, outpatient cardiology, rheumatology, and sleep medicine. Any thoughts on which of these would be most helpful for a future psychiatrist? I was originally set on sleep medicine, but now I'm concerned that it would be too repetitive without much to learn other than sleep apnea and cpap management.

The type of stuff you see in a sleep clinic depends heavily on where you are. Some places are more pulmonary-based (including my med school), some are more neuro-based (including my current residency program), a few are more psych-based... the pulm-based places tend to be more sleep apnea-oriented.
But yeah, you'll have opportunities to learn that stuff in residency. I wish I'd had more inpatient cardiology training in med school... I think I'm a bit weaker at cardiology than I am at other IM stuff (probably because I did general IM as an intern, but cardiology had their own separate service, so we didn't get a lot of cardiology patients), and it's important because it comes up in various parts of psychiatry (using sympatholytics to treat various things, assessing cognitive side effects of cardiovascular drugs, verapamil for bipolar disorder, QT prolongation, adrenergic effects of antipsychotics, etc.).

 

[splik]

it doesnt really matter, an elective is unlikely to have much if any effect on your later practice. that said please learn how to read ECGs. you will get these routinely on your patients and it is worth having more than a passing familiarity with them.

 

[milesed]

If those are your only options, I'd do sleep medicine. 90% of my psyc patients have sleep issues.

 

[notdeadyet]

that said please learn how to read ECGs. you will get these routinely on your patients and it is worth having more than a passing familiarity with them.

Amen to this. Many med schools actually have short intense electives specifically for reading ECGs (mine was two weeks). Well worth it. You really should have a basic familiarity to interpret tests that you order for your own review.

I also really liked PM&R, as its a good model for treating chronic illness (which is what we do) and does a good job at breaking down the false mind-body dichotomy.