Another question about electives

[futuredo32]

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I'm trying to schedule my electives. I would like to do a child psychiatry rotation, but the only child psych rotation in the area is at the same hospital where I really want to do my psych residency. By the time I do this elective, it will be my fourth psychiatry rotation (the other 3 will have been general psych) and I was thinking I could really shine during this rotation with the experience gained from my previous psych rotations if I did general psych and not child psych. I don't have a lot of experience with kids in general and my peds rotation ended up being a total of 7 days because the attending was on vacation a lot during my peds rotation. Would it be better to do a general psychiatry rotation as my "audition" rotation or is it ok for my "audition" rotation to be in an area that I have pretty much no prior experience?

 

[PeeWee137]

im a student also so take this for what its worth, but i would do the child psych rotation. i dont think you will get much exposure to it during a general psych residency. and theres no need to load up on general psych rotations now because you will learn it all again in residency anyway. do something cool and fun. im only doing 1 general psych rotation for 4th year (a sub-i at the place i want to match at). and i did general psych as a 3rd year rotation. the rest of my 4th year electives (hopefully) are going to be psycho-oncology, adolescent psych, and c+l or psychotherapy or emergency psych. hope it helps. good luck!

 

[sunlioness]

I agree. I would follow your interests. Medical school is all about new experiences and self-discovery. Take advantage of it while you still can. 🙂

 

[futuredo32]

Thanks so much for your advice🙂.

 

[whopper]

Mentioned this in similar threads where MS's ask this question.

You should also consider doing electives in areas outside of psychiatry. You're going to get to the point where you become competent as a resident in psychiatry so long as you do your work & study enough. You however will have no to limited oppurtunities to explore areas in medicine that correlate well with psychiatry once in residency except for Neurology & a few months of IM.

Endocrinology, primary practice, rehabilitation, gastroenterology, oncology etc all have several aspects where psychiatry can be important & vice versa. Irritable Bowel Syndrome for example has correlation with anxiety DOs, Interferon treatment for Hep C has several psychiatric implications, etc.

You will have limited oppurtunities to learn more about these nonpsyche fields once in psyche residency.

If you were to fill up all your electives with psychiatry, you'll probably be a few months ahead of your colleagues when you start residency, but the learning curve plateaus. They'll eventually catch up, while having the advantage of some experience in other psychiatrically relevant fields, rarely touched upon in residency, after a point this may actually make them overall better psychiatrists vs the person who only studied psychiatry.

 

[futuredo32]

Oh, I'm doing other electives too(FP, two required surgery electives and one other one yet to be determined, maybe OMM or Endocrinology). I just wanted to make sure it was ok to do a child psych rotation at the hospital where I hope to match without having any prior child psych experience.