preparing for psych career

[baller99]

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i'm an MS1 and I am really interested in psych, especially child psych. is there anything you guys would recommend to help prepare for a career in psych, or residency in psych, or (less importantly) getting into a "good" psych residency? I'm thinking about reading psych papers, books, reviewing all the disorders, and possibly getting into some research thing, but i'm not really sure what would be most useful.

i do find psych fun, so it will be a nice break from all my studying. i'm also getting good enough grades (middle of class) so that's not a problem. thanks!!!!

 

[romanticscience]

Hey!

It's awesome you're interested in psych! Check out the Psychiatry Student Interest Group Network:

http://www.psychsign.org/index.html

PM me for more info 🙂

 

[nitemagi]

Hi Baller, congrats on your interest. I know so many of us are enthusiastic to see anyone early in their career interested in our field.

If you're only an MS-1, I'd say study your medicine. Something that can serve you well would be improving your interviewing and counseling skills early, as it'll serve you in all of medicine. Motivational interviewing as well. Other than that I'd try to stay attuned to how psych is present throughout every specialty, and vice versa.

But again first and foremost stick with your regular studies. If you want to read psych books for fun, pick some amusing narratives or novels to whet your appetite, like Kay Redfield Jameson's books. Just some early thoughts. Make contacts and have conversations on a regular basis. Shadow. Find your passion in the field.

But don't neglect your basic medical courses.

 

[billypilgrim37]

If you want to read psych books for fun, pick some amusing narratives or novels to whet your appetite, like Kay Redfield Jameson's books.

One of my stock jokes used to be that my Step 1 score might have been ten points higher if I hadn't started reading Philip Roth M1 year, and I felt that on average, reading a lot of Philip Roth was worth more than 10 more points on Step 1 come interview time. But yeah, just work on being a good physician generally first, cultivate your psych garden based on whatever you're interested in (reading lots of things is good--academic or pop or otherwise), watch a lot of movies, and try to enjoy the privilege of the gulag which is medical school.

 

[sella turcica]

I would treat the MS1-3 years as if you were planning on going into any potential field (just do your extracurricular/club/leadership stuff in psych). What I mean is work hard, get good scores, know your MS1-2 coursework well, do well on all MS3 clinical rotations and THEN when you get to MS4 year, do all of your psych rotations/reading/etc. You will be setting yourself up very well.

 

[Manicsleep]

Ask all your patients "how do you feel about that"

 

[Manicsleep]

Date a borderline

 

[billypilgrim37]

Date a borderline

but only before she is on Zyprexa, after that it's no good.

/wish that was just speculation.

 

[baller99]

hey thanks all,
i guess i'll just keep doing what i'm doing (working hard through general coursework), though i find it boring often. the coursework is really only vaguely related to psych, so its very slow. i just get a lot more excited learning about psych stuff. and i'll try to start shadowing, though i don't know how easy that is for psych.

but for fun, are there any good books/journal articles clinic-wise that would be useful to me in the clinical years? i was looking up drugs on wikipedia and that stuff was interesting, though it was more biochemically-based and unscientific than I had hoped for. i looked on that sticky but wasn't able to find anything concrete.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

but only before she is on Zyprexa, after that it's no good.

/wish that was just speculation.

I have never dated a borderline, but it makes sense that after olanzapine turns her into a fat zombie she wouldn't be as fun.

 

[Manicsleep]

hey thanks all,
i guess i'll just keep doing what i'm doing (working hard through general coursework), though i find it boring often. the coursework is really only vaguely related to psych, so its very slow. i just get a lot more excited learning about psych stuff. and i'll try to start shadowing, though i don't know how easy that is for psych.

but for fun, are there any good books/journal articles clinic-wise that would be useful to me in the clinical years? i was looking up drugs on wikipedia and that stuff was interesting, though it was more biochemically-based and unscientific than I had hoped for. i looked on that sticky but wasn't able to find anything concrete.

The Green Journal has podcasts every month.

You can always read the 1 or 2 journals that are most interesting to you.

 

[Psychiatrypd]

I would suggest doing some volunteer work with children or adults who have psychiatric disorders. This will be a nice break from all your book work, it will help you learn more psych, and it will make you more attractive to program directors. Finally, if you decide you do not like being with real psych patients, you will have plenty of time to change your career plans.

 

[michaelrack]

Date a borderline

I have a couple of humorous comments and unprofessional comments I could make right now... maybe I should have chosen to be anonymous on SDN