Not doing a fellowship?

[ara96]

Hi all,
I'm just starting my 3rd year in General Psychiatry Residency. I am relatively young and enjoy what I do. A lot of my colleagues are interested in doing some fellowship. I am somewhat inclined to child psychiatry (not 100%). However, there is a big part of me that just doesn't want to deal with the politics of residency/fellowship and just wants to finish and "be free" of anyone having power over me.

I was wondering, in this day and age, is not doing a fellowship considered a big negative?

Thanks

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[IM2GI]

Do whatever you want. There is no point in doing a fellowship just to do one.

 

[sleepas2ndcareer]

There actually is a big market for "general" practitioners in all fields. A lot of times groups or hospitals want someone with general training not specialty training like psychiatrists, neurologists, ortho etc. Do whatever makes YOU happy.

 

[michaelrack]

This is often discussed in the psychiatry forums. The general consensus is that besides the multidisciplinary fellowships (sleep, pain) the only psychiatry fellowships worth doing are child and forensics. Every other area of psychiatry can be easily done without a fellowship. If you want to see a significant # of children, most would recommend doing a child psych fellowship.

 

[anonperson]

Do fellowship if it actually interests you.

Otherwise, get a job, make money and enjoy life. Who cares if you do general psychiatry? You have a stable job with a six figure salary with the ability to get a job anywhere in the United States that is recession proof.

You win.*

*Paraphrased from an older post by a smarter physician than me in this forum. I forget who, though.

 

[WingedOx]

No fellowship. No regrets.

 

[Raryn]

This is a specialty specific question. In psychiatry, non-Child fellowships are really only if you're truly interested in the subject and on top of it might want to stay in academics. In IM, maybe half of people end up doing fellowships... because the practice is often totally different with one compared to not with one. In something like rads or pathology, a fellowship (or sometimes more than one!) is basically required to get any decent job in recent years.

Basically, if you can get a reasonable job in your field without one, don't do one if you don't want to.

 

[QofQuimica]

It's not like you're bound for life to whatever you decide right now anyway. If you're not sure, then get a job in general psych, try it out for six months or a year, and then reassess what you want to do. If you change your mind, you can always apply in a year or two. I went back and started my fellowship after being out in general practice for three years (not from psych, but I'm doing a psych-oriented fellowship). If anything, I think it has made me a better fellow to have had that practice experience versus if I had gone straight through from residency. The time away from training also made me confident that yes, I definitely did want to do the fellowship.

P.S. You still won't be free of anyone having power over you once you get out of residency. Sorry to break that bad news to you. :-/