Psych physicians teaching undergrad?

[TexasPhysician]

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I was wondering if any MD's (more specifically with psych training) have taught courses at an undergrad or CC? Are schools relatively receptive to MD's on faculty as part-time or full-time? How open are they to what they will "allow" you to teach? Could I even do this as an upper year resident?

Assuming academic positions at a medical school are tough to get in the city I wanted to live in, how could I get my "teaching bug" a fix?

 

[whopper]

I don't see this happening unless the MD is willing to have a dramatic pay cut, or is a visiting lecturer.

What could an M.D. teach in an undergrad curriculum? Could a psychiatrist teach psychology? At best only specific areas of it, and not in a manner that could fill a semester's course. This is all things being equal. If the psychiatrist had a Ph.D. in psychology, that'd be different.

Most physicians will not want to teach in undergrad because the pay is much lower vs. the pay in clinical practice. I don't know if they are qualified to teach. Even in the most biologically oriented psychology classes I've taken, I didn't think a psychiatrist was on the level to teach it. Why?-because psychiatrists are taught the behavioral sciences within the context to treat mental illness within a medical model. Psychology is much larger than that.

E.g. I took a class on psychological endocrinology. During the class one of the chapters emphasized that sunlight had an impact on the age a female hits puberty. More sunlight, the girl entered puberty faster.

That is not taught in medical school, or in residency because no one has tagged a pathology related to this situation. A typical M.D. would have no knowledge of the above phenomenon.

It's somewhat like having a Catholic priest teach the history of Rome. Yes the priest will know more than the layman, and be an expert in his own right in several issues of similarity to Rome, but he's not going to be on the same level as a Ph.D. in history who has an expertise in Roman history.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

The problem with academic positions is that they are never just about teaching. I have a "teaching bug", too, but I saw very clearly in residency that I did not want to spend a decade trying to get tenure, writing grants & papers, etc.

My solution was to join the staff of a community hospital that is affiliated with a residency program, and to make it very clear that I wanted to be involved. This now involves a) being the site director for the MS3s who rotate here from the local university medical school, including 2-3 lectures per rotation, b) teaching a "Neuroscience for Psychiatrists" course to residents as part of their core, c) supervising the substance abuse rotation for residents, and d) much more than I could handle if I didn't say "no that's enough now". In return I get a "Clinical Assistant Professor" title, and the occasional free dinner. 🙂

I find that in these settings the demand for teaching far exceeds the supply of teachers. Another thing I've thought about, but will wait until my kids are grown I think, is to partner with a friend who teaches at a local private liberal arts college on her coursework. For now though, my plate is full.

 

[honsano]

I think we could teach a watered down version of human physiology as an adjunct professor or some sort of non-tenured role. That allows us to retain a private practice a few days a week while also teaching something we should be pretty knowledgeable about. This is at least what I was hoping to do when I hit 50 or so. The physiology we would teach would obviously not be on the medical school level and thus I think we could be qualified to instruct individuals regarding this. More like an introductory course if you will. That or be a visiting lecturer and give a few lectures in another professor's course each semester (plan B).

 

[st2205]

The director of the neuroscience program at my undergraduate was a psychiatrist. He was part of the psych department and taught intro to psych. He taught behavioral neuroscience through the neuro department and he may have taught abnormal psych.

In regards to what whopper said, regardless of who's teaching the course they're an expert in one aspect of the course (the priest, if you will), but know very little about other aspects outside of that. For instance, look at any undergrad course you took; for those that you felt the teacher had expertise on all the subject in the course it's likely because you, as a student, didn't know much about the subject. The more we learn about subjects the more we realize people don't know too much about subjects, which is probably why, as a psychiatrist, he realizes that there would be holes in knowledge when teaching a psych class. The same thing would happen, I beleive, if he were (insert any academic subject) and observed someone teaching that course. Long story short the people who teach courses (any course) have a particular area of expertise one one aspect of that field, like a biochemist, but don't spend their whole career focusing strictly on the direct principles and application of everything within that particular course.

I rambled, but I hope it made sense.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

The director of the neuroscience program at my undergraduate was a psychiatrist. He was part of the psych department and taught intro to psych. He taught behavioral neuroscience through the neuro department and he may have taught abnormal psych.

In regards to what whopper said, regardless of who's teaching the course they're an expert in one aspect of the course (the priest, if you will), but know very little about other aspects outside of that. For instance, look at any undergrad course you took; for those that you felt the teacher had expertise on all the subject in the course it's likely because you, as a student, didn't know much about the subject. The more we learn about subjects the more we realize people don't know too much about subjects, which is probably why, as a psychiatrist, he realizes that there would be holes in knowledge when teaching a psych class. The same thing would happen, I beleive, if he were (insert any academic subject) and observed someone teaching that course. Long story short the people who teach courses (any course) have a particular area of expertise one one aspect of that field, like a biochemist, but don't spend their whole career focusing strictly on the direct principles and application of everything within that particular course.

I rambled, but I hope it made sense.

Or as my friend said: "Getting a PhD means learning more and more about less and less until you finally know Everything about Nothing." 😀

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Or as my friend said: "Getting a PhD means learning more and more about less and less until you finally know Everything about Nothing." 😀

See my sig.

To answer the OP....probably not. What OPD said about lecturing and conducting seminars will probably be a better fit. There is a great deal more involved in "teaching" at the undergraduate and graduate levels, most of while will drive a non-tenture track person nuts (and usually bugs tenure track people too).

As for teaching undergraduates....I'd strongly suggest guest lecturing before trying to take on a class (if you find a fit for your area). It can be a very different experience between the undergraduate and graduate levels, and people tend to have a preference between the two.

Oh, and the pay stinks at both levels for non-tenure people.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

there were a couple of neuroscience upper leve/grad seminars that were taught by a psychiatrist. I thought it was fine considering it was pretty specialized stuff.

I would love to teach undergrad myself, but if I ever did something, it'd probably be an seminar in philosophy of biology/medicine or something in human evolution. Which I'm qualified to do.