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- Jun 13, 2010
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.What's up psychiatrists
I've been in mental health for a little over two years and have formed some impressions about the different jobs available to psychiatrists. I'm curious to see if you think I'm correct...
Community outpatient psychiatrists: I work with these guys really closely since I'm a case manager at a community mental health clinic. These docs seem to have the most control over the progress of their patients. They get to see people progress but still are at the mercy of bad case managers/ lack of available resources. They seem to get frustrated when homeless person X is still homeless a year later despite the person's best efforts and their best efforts at med management. They're often not around 5 days a week since the pay is better elsewhere and this sometimes keeps them from being as involved as would be ideal. Being on an ACT team helps this somewhat, but these are realities I see arising over and over again.
Psychiatrists in the community hospital unit: These MDs have really tough jobs. From our end they are always discharging patients who aren't ready, but from they're end there is a ton of pressure to keep census at a manageable level (and make some room for the patient who has been stuck in holding in the ER for 18 hours). Some of them seem to have pretty sweet gigs worked out, working for only a few hours a day in the unit and choosing their hours. I'm not sure that it always makes a difference when you find one that is still passionate about her/his job (though every once in a great while it makes a huge difference). You only see people when they are really sick so I don't really criticize them for being pretty distant from the perspective of the mental health case manager.
Psychiatrists at the state mental hospital: They seem to have the closest thing to a job like I'm used to, complete with prescribed hours, annoying BS meetings, constant oversight by superiors, and many hoops to jump through. I suspect the pay is pretty sweet though. They see the same (very sick) individuals over and over and can get frustrated with a lack of progress from the social work side of the equation. They have more control over the patient's progress than the doc in the community unit, but less than the doc at the outpatient clinic.
Private Practice: I have no experience here but, as somebody who is fascinated by psychosis and loves the thrill of a psychiatric emergency unfolding before my eyes on a busy downtown street (and the thrill of managing it as well as possible), this part of the biz seems to be the least compelling to me. Seems like maybe this could get a bit repetitive and boring.
How far off am I?.
I've been in mental health for a little over two years and have formed some impressions about the different jobs available to psychiatrists. I'm curious to see if you think I'm correct...
Community outpatient psychiatrists: I work with these guys really closely since I'm a case manager at a community mental health clinic. These docs seem to have the most control over the progress of their patients. They get to see people progress but still are at the mercy of bad case managers/ lack of available resources. They seem to get frustrated when homeless person X is still homeless a year later despite the person's best efforts and their best efforts at med management. They're often not around 5 days a week since the pay is better elsewhere and this sometimes keeps them from being as involved as would be ideal. Being on an ACT team helps this somewhat, but these are realities I see arising over and over again.
Psychiatrists in the community hospital unit: These MDs have really tough jobs. From our end they are always discharging patients who aren't ready, but from they're end there is a ton of pressure to keep census at a manageable level (and make some room for the patient who has been stuck in holding in the ER for 18 hours). Some of them seem to have pretty sweet gigs worked out, working for only a few hours a day in the unit and choosing their hours. I'm not sure that it always makes a difference when you find one that is still passionate about her/his job (though every once in a great while it makes a huge difference). You only see people when they are really sick so I don't really criticize them for being pretty distant from the perspective of the mental health case manager.
Psychiatrists at the state mental hospital: They seem to have the closest thing to a job like I'm used to, complete with prescribed hours, annoying BS meetings, constant oversight by superiors, and many hoops to jump through. I suspect the pay is pretty sweet though. They see the same (very sick) individuals over and over and can get frustrated with a lack of progress from the social work side of the equation. They have more control over the patient's progress than the doc in the community unit, but less than the doc at the outpatient clinic.
Private Practice: I have no experience here but, as somebody who is fascinated by psychosis and loves the thrill of a psychiatric emergency unfolding before my eyes on a busy downtown street (and the thrill of managing it as well as possible), this part of the biz seems to be the least compelling to me. Seems like maybe this could get a bit repetitive and boring.
How far off am I?.
