How happy are you with your speciality?

[Attending1985]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello - I am a third year psychiatry resident and am feeling disenchanted with my speciality choice. I posted on this previously in the psych forum awhile back but wanted a general opinion. As I progress in my training I am feeling more frustrated and not as rewarded or challenged by my work as I would have hoped. Basically I am trying to decide what my next step is. I considered IM and pediatrics and now feel that either one would have been a better fit for me. However, my fourth year is relatively easy and due to my husband being in graduate school I cannot move until I'm done with residency. I've been thinking about doing a second residency in IM but this seems so exhausting and I have a small child who I would like to spend time with. I guess my choice is either finish up and work part-time and accept that I probably never be that happy with my job or go on to a second residency. Any thoughts?

 

[IMPD]

Forensics, sleep, addiction, child. These are all better ideas than repeating a residency.

 

[IMPD]

Oh, and I think even Palliative.

 

[Kahreek]

finish fourth year, and definitely give a hard thought about im or fp or peds if you really want it.

 

[Law2Doc]

I think the first thing you need to do is figure out what you actually like about these other fields and figure out if there are similar aspects in some psych jobs. You might hate working with some groups of patients but like others, or might like inpatient over out, etc -- see if you can tailor your current career rather than start a New one. If not, residency goes by quick if you have to do another.

 

[IM2GI]

I think you are too far along in life to have to go back and do a whole new residency. You have a life and a child, it is just not worth it.

IMPD has it right, do some sort of multi-specialty fellowship if you really don't think you can practice psych. You could also bail and look into non-clinical jobs for physicians.

 

[Dermione Granger]

Sleep medicine? Pain? Or Do u like research or teaching? Those are good options too?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Medicine, like many highly regulated professional jobs, can be frustrating. It's not always rewarding and it can be thankless. That being said, I love what I do.

Perhaps if we knew the specifics of what the issues are we could more accurately advise you as I'm sometimes concerned about the "grass is greener" phenomenon being at play especially when it's a resident posting. You might find the same issues at work in any other speciality.

 

[Raryn]

Forensics, sleep, addiction, child. These are all better ideas than repeating a residency.

In addition to those, C&L psychiatry or just focusing on general inpatient psych are options that are closer to IM.

 

[Attending1985]

Thanks for the replies. I felt that intern year I actually did very well. Didn't dread coming to work even though the hours were long but second year I started to feel less satisfied and this year I find myself often dreading going to work. I think I miss the faster pace of medicine and seeing tangible, immediate results which I never get anymore. I think a combined residency would've been best for me but hindsight is 20/20. I really like the idea of palliative medicine and am going to look into it further. I guess I just wondered if all residents were unhappy or if I really hate my specialty.

 

[Raryn]

Thanks for the replies. I felt that intern year I actually did very well. Didn't dread coming to work even though the hours were long but second year I started to feel less satisfied and this year I find myself often dreading going to work. I think I miss the faster pace of medicine and seeing tangible, immediate results which I never get anymore. I think a combined residency would've been best for me but hindsight is 20/20. I really like the idea of palliative medicine and am going to look into it further. I guess I just wondered if all residents were unhappy or if I really hate my specialty.

I'd recommend doing more inpatient or even (if your program has it) emergency psych time. You can get some pretty decent results fast, and the people I know (both here and when I was in medical school) who do that all seem pretty satisfied.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Thanks for the replies. I felt that intern year I actually did very well. Didn't dread coming to work even though the hours were long but second year I started to feel less satisfied and this year I find myself often dreading going to work. I think I miss the faster pace of medicine and seeing tangible, immediate results which I never get anymore. I think a combined residency would've been best for me but hindsight is 20/20. I really like the idea of palliative medicine and am going to look into it further. I guess I just wondered if all residents were unhappy or if I really hate my specialty.

I think being unhappy as a resident about some aspect of your field is pretty normal, and it's hard to separate out things like burnout. I just finished my psychiatry residents, and while I think psych was ultimately the right choice for me, it can also be a pretty discouraging field with times where you feel like you're not doing much. However, that's probably pretty typical for most chronic care types of specialties.

I agree with the others that doing another residency is a pretty huge thing and that it might be easier to find something within psych that you like. It sounds like inpatient and CL type of work might be more your style.