Moonlighting as a shrink

[DD214_DOC]

One of the major things keeping me from choosing psych without any hesitation is the fear of missing out on the "other" aspects of medicine.I feel if I knew I could get a healthy taste of this stuff on occasion, I would be pretty happy.

So, is moonlighting as a shrink possible? How difficult is it to get a moonlighting spot as one?

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[peppy]

If you think you're going to miss other medical fields, I think a more practical route would be to go into Geriatric Psych. Then you would see a lot more medical comorbidities in your patients.

 

[strangeglove]

One of the major things keeping me from choosing psych without any hesitation is the fear of missing out on the "other" aspects of medicine.I feel if I knew I could get a healthy taste of this stuff on occasion, I would be pretty happy.

So, is moonlighting as a shrink possible? How difficult is it to get a moonlighting spot as one?

It seems that it would be hard to practice as a psychiatrist without doing at least part of a psychiatry residency, no?

 

[notdeadyet]

It seems that it would be hard to practice as a psychiatrist without doing at least part of a psychiatry residency, no?

My read of the question is he wants to become a psychiatrist but practice "other" medicine by moonlighting.

 

[strangeglove]

My read of the question is he wants to become a psychiatrist but practice "other" medicine by moonlighting.

Right.

 

[whopper]

I wouldn't recommend practicing psychiatry without the proper training in it.

If you want to practice psychiatry in addition to other forms of medicine, consider a combined IM or FP & psychiatry program.

Or consider something that bridges 2 fields, e.g. Consult Liason Psychiatry or Reproductive Psychiatry.

 

[DD214_DOC]

Well, I thought my original question was pretty clear. What I meant was whether or not a trained psychiatrist can moonlight in, say, an urgent center, ER, or what have you just to keep his medicine skills/knowledge sharp.

I know legally they CAN, but how often are they ABLE to do this?

 

[whopper]

I know legally they CAN, but how often are they ABLE to do this?

I doubt much. I'm sure there will be some local variability.

You'll have several strikes against you--still being a resident, not being in an ER program. You won't have any real ER experience under the superivision of an ER residency.

Better to ask in the ER forum.

 

[billypilgrim37]

Well, I thought my original question was pretty clear. What I meant was whether or not a trained psychiatrist can moonlight in, say, an urgent center, ER, or what have you just to keep his medicine skills/knowledge sharp.

I know legally they CAN, but how often are they ABLE to do this?

I think you were simply missing Strangelove's dry witticism/cutting criticism. He got your question. His point, as I took it, was that you wouldn't be qualified to practice at a high level of general medicine, and so shouldn't, as the point is not to keep your skills sharp, but to offer a decent level of care.

That said, there are probably some options for this. The ED is too acute, but much of this will depend on your locale, and there's probably not much point in speculating about what those specific options might be.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

Once you have your medical license, I don't see why you couldn't moonlight in a resident's capacity in a more medicine-focused area. You're not exactly going to be massively behind the curve compared to a PGY-2 IM resident. And if you are, well they just won't ask you back.

Especially where they have trouble getting and holding onto medicine moonlighters, I don't think it'd be terribly hard to pull off.

It's an option I've considered myself.

Not sure how that'll work once you're an attending. I think they'd probably rather have an IM resident moonlight than pay a non-IM doc an attending moonlighting wage.

Med/psych only adds a year to your residency, and a lot of times you can work something out if you're already in a psych program to do an 'informal' double board.

As for urgie/primary care...I know several psychiatrists who work in urgent care centers to supplement income, and one or two who do PCP stuff as well (these are rural docs where I bet insurance etc is forced to be more lenient about such things)

 

[psychotrope]

Once you have your medical license, I don't see why you couldn't moonlight in a resident's capacity in a more medicine-focused area. You're not exactly going to be massively behind the curve compared to a PGY-2 IM resident. And if you are, well they just won't ask you back.

1) pgy-2 im residents, at the start of their second year, arent exactly the most desired moonlighters to start with.

2) most psych pgy-2's will be a "good bit behind" most medicine pgy-2's. They've spent their whole intern year on medicine, have probably done 2 icu months, half a dozen inpatient ward months, clinics at various times, etc....they also go to all the conferences and didactics with their service. Many psych pgy-2's will have done, in terms of medicine months, no icu months and maybe 2 months of inpatient medicine(at some programs it's 3 or 4, at some it's actually 1). So it's not really comparable.