Choosing residency: obgyn vs psych

[missDO2018]

Hello all,
I have been very confused about what to go into for residency 🙁
I came to medical school to do obgyn, be an abortion provider and advocate for women's health. I am half way through my clinical year and i ve loved every rotation i ve done ( surgery, IM, FM, peds, psych, obgyn) !!!! I like obgyn and psych the most.
I Love obgyn because it is a mix of surgery, outpatient and inpatient.
I love psych because i feel so rewarded by talking to patients a lot n knowing that im helping them no matter it takes so much emotional energy!
I ve heard that obgyn residencies are very hard with aweful hours during residency and after in actuall practice. I dont do well under pressure and prefer somewhat supportive environment. I love to spend time w my family and kids in future too! Im also afraid i might miss doing physical exams and procedures by gpibg into psych
My CV is pretty strong for obgyn and i am on one of women's health organization board and has been offered great LORs.
I have looked in to fm/psych and IM/ psych programs but i think i have little chance for getting into those provrams since they are so competetive!!! 🙁 If i knew i could get in to fm/psych i wouldnt be posting this question.

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[Stagg737]

I think the two questions you have to answer for yourself are:

1. Do you like to cut and do procedures a lot/would you be able to be happy not doing either for the rest of your career? If you go into psych, you won't be doing either, so if you feel like you need that physical contact, psych isn't for you.

2. How important is your "off" time and how much do you really need? OB residency is likely going to be far more time consuming than psych, as will the rest of your career. Can you have a pretty easy schedule as an OB? Sure, but generally OBs are going to have more work hours and a lot more call than psych (many of whom actually work 40 hour weeks). If you really value your time off or feel like your number one priority is family, you'd probably be better off going into psych.

It really comes down to what do you need out of your career, and what are you willing to sacrifice/compromise on? Those are both things that you'll have to figure out for yourself.

 

[deleted763299]

I am half way through my clinical year and i ve loved every rotation i ve done ( surgery, IM, FM, peds, psych, obgyn) !!!! I like obgyn and psych the most.
I Love obgyn because it is a mix of surgery, outpatient and inpatient.
I love psych because i feel so rewarded by talking to patients a lot n knowing that im helping them no matter it takes so much emotional energy!

It seems like a potentially useful approach for you to sort this out might be to re-frame your thinking. Instead of thinking about all the things you liked about ob/gyn and psych, what didn't you like about them? What did you think about the "bread and butter" in each?

No medical specialty is perfect, and there's at least something not to like about each one. Assuming that the positives for each field are roughly equal in your mind, considering which field has the fewest negatives might help to push you one way or another. For an example from ob/gyn, how do you feel about taking care of pregnant women who continue to drink EtOH or use illegal drugs while pregnant? For an example from psych, how do you think you would handle it if one of your patients committed suicide?

Furthermore, consider how you would feel dealing with the every-day patient in each specialty. Exciting cases are one thing, but being able to enjoy (or at least live with) the average run-of-the-mill patient in a given specialty is another, and arguably more important for your long term happiness. For an example from ob/gyn, how would you feel about walking into your clinic and having a schedule filled with pap smears, and OCP refills? For an example from psych, how would you feel about a clinic schedule filled with depression and anxiety follow ups?

 

[Mad Jack]

Can you give up the medical side of medicine forever? That's the big question. Ob/Gyn gives you everything. Psych gives you the one thing. You'll never see the OR again, you'll never deliver a baby, you'll never save a patient by diagnosing their cancer, etc. Psych is psych, and that's it for the rest of your life. Choose wisely.

 

[cbrons]

Do Psych

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[huub1320]

Hello all,
.....My CV is pretty strong for obgyn and i am on one of women's health organization board and has been offered great LORs.
I have looked in to fm/psych and IM/ psych programs but i think i have little chance for getting into those provrams since they are so competetive!!! 🙁 If i knew i could get in to fm/psych i wouldnt be posting this question.

I've actually been wondering how competitive the combined psych programs are- where have you heard this, out of curiosity?

 

[icd22]

I would go into fam med. You get to see plenty of psych patients, you can do deliveries if you want. You can still do both outpatient and inpatient. If you really get tired of the pace of your practice, you can do a 1 year fellowship in palliative care and take your time talking to patients and supporting them when they and their families are most vulnerable

 

[BamaNicole]

You know this was exactly my question. I experienced things that pushed me from one to the other.

 

[NWwildcat2013]

What exactly happens to you under pressure? Does it just bother you or do you become non-functional and break down?

OBGYN will have plenty of pressure and stress. Think about whether you'd be able to wake up and go into work with that waiting for you.

 

[masaraksh]

Personally I'd choose psych over OB. Good hours, okay money, don't have to touch patients.

 

[sloop]

Can you give up the medical side of medicine forever? That's the big question. Ob/Gyn gives you everything. Psych gives you the one thing. You'll never see the OR again, you'll never deliver a baby, you'll never save a patient by diagnosing their cancer, etc. Psych is psych, and that's it for the rest of your life. Choose wisely.

This framing is wrong. Psych is a very special/different field but it is decidedly medical. Psych, currently, is one of the most flexible specialties in medicine and can entail a lot of things. Not everyone becomes a psychoanalyst. At many places, psychiatrists on med-psych units are routinely tasked with managing medical issues of the inpatients. Additionally, the work of a psychosomatic medicine/consultation-liaison psychiatrist is arguably more "medical" in terms of needing a breadth of knowledge about med-surg conditions than most other specialties.

 

[MrChance2]

Psych. Not close.

 

[DocWinter]

Years down the road, psych will be a very good choice. Good hours, not punishing on the body.
For the young and energetic, OBGYN is a very attractive choice.Lively, OR time. Will be harder to do later in life.
It sounds like your heart wants OB but your head tells you are better for psych. You even want to go FM/Psych and be done with it.

 

[futuremdforme]

Where do you want to live? If you like rural, you can do FM, do deliveries and also mental health counselling!

 

[Ioannes Paulus]

Yeah, do FM. You can do psych and OB and more.