Masters vs. Medical School

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mindfxck

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As of right now, I am a sophomore in college. I am pursuing a double major in psychology and social work with pre-med prerequisites.
My decision to double major was last minute, but I am still very passionate about attending medical school after obtaining my bachelors in order to become a psychiatrist.
However, I am conflicted with what I truly want to do. I have had my mind set on studying psychology and becoming a psychiatrist since I was a sophomore in high school. Lately, I have been coming to terms with what my heart wants out of life and what I want is leaning more towards social work, and working with all levels of society. I want to study medicine and give therapy, but I want to work with children who struggle with more than mental illness.

I am thinking of going to medical school and getting a masters in SW at the same time, maybe getting my masters in SW before going to medical school.

What do y'all think?

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There was another thread with similar ideas about SW pathway. The general idea is that you can be a SW or a physician, you can't really do both realistically. Shadow some physicians, you don't have the time with patients to deal with their medical issues completely usually, much less provide good SW type of support. Plus it will be hard to even keep up with the most recent SW information with all that you would have on your plate as a physician. That's why we work in healthcare teams and let the SW professionals take care of the patients using their expertise and additional time with patients. Trying to both will likely translate into doing both poorly, and that is unfair to your patients.

I think you need to figure out what you really want to do, why do you really want to be a psychiatrist? You can provide important services/support to people by many other pathways psychologists, SW, etc. is that a better fit for what you want to do? Hammer out what you really want to do and how you want to help people and then see which educational pathway fits your goals the best.
 
If you want to be a psychiatrist from the get-go you should just look into becoming a clinical psychologist. It sounds like that's what you really want to do, and it's also a competitive field but you don't have to go through a lot of the training in med school that won't be that relevant.

You have to do some digging into what it is actually like to practice as a psychiatrist vs. clinical psychologist.
 
OP, I highly suggest getting some experience (be it work or volunteer) in a setting where you can observe how the various disciplines interact. Like you, I know I want to enter the mental health field but wasn't sure in what capacity until I started working at a psychiatric hospital. I've had a chance to interact with social workers, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists, and after some deliberation decided on the latter.
 
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