Is this the path I will be taking?

[Levi]

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Reading through about 30 posts (faq's, user post's, and guides) I'm still not familiar with the process of becoming a psychiatrist.

-4 Years of College/University completing req classes needed for Med School.
-4 Years of Med School
-1 Year Internship at a Hospital?
-4-5 Years as a resident?


Is this what I can expect to go through on the path to becoming a psychiatrist? I've also been collecting some knowledge about med school and internships from Hospital shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (I more than likely am wrong 🙂)

 

[wolfvgang22]

Reading through about 30 posts (faq's, user post's, and guides) I'm still not familiar with the process of becoming a psychiatrist.

-4 Years of College/University completing req classes needed for Med School.
-4 Years of Med School
-1 Year Internship at a Hospital?
-4-5 Years as a resident?


Is this what I can expect to go through on the path to becoming a psychiatrist? I've also been collecting some knowledge about med school and internships from Hospital shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (I more than likely am wrong 🙂)

The four year residency includes the one intern year.

 

[Levi]

The four year residency includes the one intern year.

Awesome thanks. And also I'm not really understanding the whole concept of applying to programs at Universities after med school. After med school I thought it was BAM you go to work for a hospital as an intern. Guess not

 

[babel]

Here's the breakdown:
4 years undergrad (major in anything as long as you fulfill the premed req's)
4 years medical school (roughly 2 years book learning, 2 years hospital work)
4 years psychiatry residency
optional: 1-2 year fellowship (C&A, C/L, Forensics etc)

There are also 3 licensing exams that everyone in all specialities have to take along the way (USMLE Step 1, 2CK/CS, and 3), plus licensing exams in your chosen speciality/subspecialty.

You apply to residency programs after medical school, which may or may not be affiliated with universities. The process is similar in a lot of ways to applying to medical school (with the glaring exception of the Match, of course), but at the end, you will be getting paid (~$40-50k/year) to work in a hospital. Once you graduate medical school and start residency you will have an MD, but you do still require residency training to be licensed and practice.

Intern year used to mean something quite different from what it does today; nowadays, the first year of any residency program is referred to as "internship" and people in this year are referred to as "interns".

Although this is getting waaay ahead of yourself, you could try checking out the Freida website - you can look up residency programs by locations, and many of them have a website link.
https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/user/viewProgramSearch.do

 

[whopper]

but at the end, you will be getting paid (~$40-50k/year) to work in a hospital. Once you graduate medical school and start residency you will have an MD, but you do still require residency training to be licensed and practice.

Add that when you apply, you apply through a system call the MATCH. Its similar to a common application form. You do one application, it gets sents to all residencies participating in the MATCH (which is virtually all of them). The MATCH incorporates a computer program that factors in all the programs that are willing to accept you (And they make a list of the people they are willing to admit in a preferential order), and the places the person wants to go on a list that person ranks in preferential order. The program then matches candidates to programs with the most amount of mutual preference between the candidate and the program.

However, and this is something you really need to factor in, you HAVE TO GO WHERE THE MATCH TELLS YOU TO GO. If you matched in a place you do not want to go to, well too bad, you're there. If you're married and this puts you away from your wife, or from your dying grandmother, too bad. Its not like college or medical school in the sense that places will accept you, then you choose where to go. The MATCH will tell you where to go. End of story.

As bad as that seems, there are ways to pre-plan to avoid going to a program you do not want to go. E.g. you can interview at more places so you have a higher # of places you can put on your list, you can choose to not put a place on your list etc. If you married (or otherwise linked to someone) who is also applying to a program at the same time, you can do a couples match, which will put both of you in the same place (which can cause other problems but that's another topic). However for several they have little choice. Its also better for there to be a MATCH system vs to not have one at all. Trust me on that. The problems that occurred before the MATCH are far worse IMHO than the MATCH itself.

You have to factor this in because you may be in a situation where this can greatly affect your life in a negative manner.

(You could also try to get into a program outside the MATCH but that too is another topic. The overwhelming majority use the MATCH).

 

[Levi]

So basically I would be placed wherever the MATCH sees fit? Would I not be able to only enter certain states into the search criteria if there is one?

Also whopper, during your internship and the rest of your resident years where did you work/practice? In a regular hospital on the psych floor? Or in a psychiatric hospital only for patients in need of psychiatric care such as an asylum? I ask, because I'm totally curious as to what will happen.

 

[notdeadyet]

So basically I would be placed wherever the MATCH sees fit? Would I not be able to only enter certain states into the search criteria if there is one?

When you're in your final year of medical school, you decide which residency programs you want to apply to. The programs decide if they want to interview you. You then go on interviews and afterwards, you make a rank list of only the programs you would be willing to attend.

You prioritize these and the schools prioritize which applicants they want. On Match Day, a list is spit out telling you where you'll be going. But it will only be one of the schools that you ranked.

That said, there is no guarantee that you will be chosen by residencies, so you need to have a long enough list of places you have ranked to make sure that you're chosen by somebody. So you need to keep an open mind.

 

[loveoforganic]

God, didn't understand match worked like that. Rough :/

 

[whopper]

Would I not be able to only enter certain states into the search criteria if there is one?

Notdeadyet answered, but sometimes more to the chorus increase the person's confidence that they're getting the right answer.

Yes. You could for example only decide to put in programs in a specific area you want to go. However a problem there is you're cutting down places which could accept you. Just like in college, you want some safety programs.

All in all, its not as bad as being drafted (though some have compared this to being drafted). Like I said, there are things you can do to reduce the possibility that you'll be taken to a place you do not want to go. However for several, they put in safeties including a place they did not want to go, and the MATCH put them there, so end of story--> they have to go there.

From my own anectdotal experience the majority end up going to a program where they felt satisfied with the result. However others don't. The better you do in medschool, and the more interviews you do, the more choice you will have, and the odds of going to a place you don't want to go drop.

When I applied through the MATCH I refused to put a program or 2 into the system. I had enough word from others that those programs were malignant. You could either not put those programs on your list at all, or you could put them on the bottom of the your MATCH list.

 

[Levi]

Now I get it, thanks for clarifying that for me. On another note, when you started your residency were you in a hospital? or a psychiatric facility? Do you switch back and forth or remain at one? I would like to spend most of my time in a hospital, but I also would like to do some work in a psych facility.

 

[whopper]

On another note, when you started your residency were you in a hospital? or a psychiatric facility?

I think you got some of the specific wording wrong, but I think I understand what you mean.

You wrote "hospital" which I'm interpreting as a medical hospital. That is a hospital that is primarily to treat the medical needs of a patient. Several medical hospitals will have a psychiatric unit on it. "Psychiatric facility" which I'm interpreting as a psychiatric long term care facility, previously known as asylums.

It depends on the program. Different residency programs will offer different places where you can work. Almost all psychiatry residencies (I'd dare say all, but I'm not 100% certain) will have you work in a medical hospital. That is a good thing because during consult liason psychiatry, you will learn about how psychiatric disorders can affect a person's medical (meaning disorders of the physical body) disorders and vice versa.

Many psychiatric residencies will allow you to work in a psychiatric long term care facility. That is a facility where psychiatric patients go if they do not get better within about 1 month's time. These are the more severe cases, and unfortunately some people in these facilities never leave because they are too dangerous to themselves or society (e.g. someone who while psychotic attacks, even kills people. Despite being tried on several medications, none of them worked or worked to the point where the person could be safe in society).

While someone is in a psychiatric residency, they have to do several rotations (the equivalent of a class). For example you have to do some non psychiatric medical work (usually internal medicine), do some inpatient, some consult liason work, some outpatient etc.

So when you start, you might not start specifically in a hospital. You might be working in an outpatient office depending on how the specific program is organized.