Interview/Psychiatry Question

[hoot504]

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I think I may be bringing my own prejudices to this thread; I'm going to ask the question anyway. I've held the indication that psychiatry is akin to the black sheep of medicine. Even still, it is one of the specialties I am most interested in. The question, then, is whether it would be wise to state this during an interview? All feedback is appreciated, assuming it's coherent 🙂

 

[TriagePreMed]

I think I may be bringing my own prejudices to this thread; I'm going to ask the question anyway. I've held the indication that psychiatry is akin to the black sheep of medicine. Even still, it is one of the specialties I am most interested in. The question, then, is whether it would be wise to state this during an interview? All feedback is appreciated, assuming it's coherent 🙂

Most modern day academic medicine knows the importance of psychiatry. After all, it is one of your required clerkships.

I would argue that in most places this will look better than many other specialties since psychiatry is a field that needs professionals and goes greatly under staffed. Someone once told me that ADCOMs like to hear it as much as primary care.

One last thing, don't bring up specialties unless they ask you or is pertinent to the question at hand.

 

[LizzyM]

OK, so I'm an interviewer. You tell me you are thinking about a career in psychiatry.

Here are the follow-up questions I'm likely to ask:

what attracts you to psychiatry?

In what type of setting do you see yourself practicing?

Have you given any thought to other specialties?

If psychiatry were not an option, what alternatives would you consider? why did you choose that as an alternative?

 

[hoot504]

OK, so I'm an interviewer. You tell me you are thinking about a career in psychiatry.

Here are the follow-up questions I'm likely to ask:

what attracts you to psychiatry?

In what type of setting do you see yourself practicing?

Have you given any thought to other specialties?

If psychiatry were not an option, what alternatives would you consider? why did you choose that as an alternative?

I have no intentions of showing up to the interview like Carl Jung reincarnate, I just wanted to know whether it would be frowned upon to answer psychiatry if I were asked to reveal my favored specialty.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Psychiatry is a very interesting field. I would like to say that it really is a black sheep of medicine because it is the field that deals with THE most complicated and misunderstood thing. The mind and the organ which facilitates it the brain. There are simply too much to understand when dealing with things with schizophrenia, somatoform disorders, depression etc.
Lets take major depressive disorder or dysthymia ( a milder but longer lasting form of depression). The treatments range from trycliclics ( it was originally an allergy medicine) , maoi's ( both of which turn the brain to mush) ssri's ( more effective but don't treat the problem just make it less effecting). Then you have the classic ECT and prior to that IST ( insulin shock therapy) both of which induce seizures to treat a person?
I mean I could go into schizophrenia and talk about how we still don't understand why some alternate amine targeting drugs work better then the drugs that target the one believed to be most active in causing schizophrenia.

But at the same time psychiatry is important. Without psychiatrists medicine and treatments wouldn't be half as effective and most people with somatoforms ( hysteria) would be having their hands or eyes removed.

So I would recommend that you not be public of considering psychiatry a black sheep as there is a major anti-psychiatry movement. However questioning psychiatry and many treatments is a must; skepticism is a must within this field.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

I have no intentions of showing up to the interview like Carl Jung reincarnate, I just wanted to know whether it would be frowned upon to answer psychiatry if I were asked to reveal my favored specialty.

C'mon now. You aren't going to be interviewed by members of the church of scientology. You will be interviewed by people who are associated with the medical school. Since psychiatry is a part of medicine, I highly doubt those people will look down on psychiatry or look down on you for being interested in psychiatry. As someone said before, psychiatry isn't the most popular field, like IM/FM/Peds, among medical students. Having someone interested in an understaffed field may actually make you look good. 😉

 

[hoot504]

Now serenade, I asked for coherence

 

[LizzyM]

I have no intentions of showing up to the interview like Carl Jung reincarnate, I just wanted to know whether it would be frowned upon to answer psychiatry if I were asked to reveal my favored specialty.

I interview medical school applicants and I am being honest with you in telling you the questions I'd ask if you told me that you were leaning toward psychiatry. (I'd have only slightly different questions if you answered gynecology or radiology.)

If you don't want to address those questions, then "don't go there".

I generally ask, "when you imagine yourself practicing medicine, what are you doing?" It doesn't require specifying a specialty although it might deferentiate those who are thinking about procedure based specialties in the OR versus those who are attracted to talking with patients and using their intellect to make a diagnosis and to explain it and the treatment plan to patients.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Now serenade, I asked for coherence

You get what you get from Serenade at 1 AM.

 

[tweek125]

hmm. and how does that make you feel?

 

[hoot504]

hmm. and how does that make you feel?

 

[hoot504]

I interview medical school applicants and I am being honest with you in telling you the questions I'd ask if you told me that you were leaning toward psychiatry. (I'd have only slightly different questions if you answered gynecology or radiology.)

If you don't want to address those questions, then "don't go there".

I generally ask, "when you imagine yourself practicing medicine, what are you doing?" It doesn't require specifying a specialty although it might deferentiate those who are thinking about procedure based specialties in the OR versus those who are attracted to talking with patients and using their intellect to make a diagnosis and to explain it and the treatment plan to patients.

I appreciate the information Lizzy, the tone of your first post made it seem like you thought I was going to spend the entire interview being a champion for psychiatry. I only wanted to know what an adcom's knee-jerk reaction would be towards an applicant interested in psychiatry

 

[LizzyM]

The big question in med school interviews is "why medicine". If you are going to mention a subspecialty within medicine expect the question to change to "why that specialty". Also what you would do if you couldn't do medicine (or if you couldn't do that specialty). Don't memorize an answer to this (then you sound rehearsed which is bad) but spend some time turning it over in your mind so that you have your thought together.