Taking the USMLE a good idea in this case? (please read details)

[DisorderedDoc417]

"Psych is an art in my honest opinion and is probably the least "sciencey" of all of the blocks... despite it's tie-ins into neurology here and there.... hence why it is left to the END of our curriculum."

I agree and disagree with this statement. You are right, psych is an art. But you can say that about any specialty. Surgeons talk about surgery as an "art". I had an orthopod tell me he has done over 1 million knee replacements, but he doesn't get bored because he views it as an art that he is still perfecting, and he has his own individual approach.

Least sciency? Not sure about that either. You are correct, you can take a less science approach in psychiatry. But there is also a very hardcore, concrete area of psychiatry that involves psychopharm/neuroimaging/neuroscience, etc.

A general reply to the naysayers...

In the hospital, do you know who the surgeon consults when a patient coming out of post op becomes psychotic? How about the patient who is delirious on the med floor and didn’t respond to 2mg of haldol? Or a patient who has questionable capacity?? They are hitting the consult button so often it is nauseating. I’m beginning to wonder if internists can treat delirium anymore.

Psychiatrists may be artists, but we are not starving. We are masters in psychopharmacology. We know “those meds” and treat “those patients” all while giving a middle finger to stigma and living a very decent life/respectable income. The fact that some here need to validate themselves by becoming defensive by naysayers just feeds the troll. Please keep it up, I like being in demand.

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[Mass Effect]

A general reply to the naysayers...

In the hospital, do you know who the surgeon consults when a patient coming out of post op becomes psychotic? How about the patient who is delirious on the med floor and didn’t respond to 2mg of haldol? Or a patient who has questionable capacity?? They are hitting the consult button so often it is nauseating. I’m beginning to wonder if internists can treat delirium anymore.

Psychiatrists may be artists, but we are not starving. We are masters in psychopharmacology. We know “those meds” and treat “those patients” all while giving a middle finger to stigma and living a very decent life/respectable income. The fact that some here need to validate themselves by becoming defensive by naysayers just feeds the troll. Please keep it up, I like being in demand.

Plus, my BS radar always goes off when some random med student claims to know where his/her classmates are all ranked.

 

[Celexa]

Plus, my BS radar always goes off when some random med student claims to know where his/her classmates are all ranked.

Especially once you get to clinicals. I think it's more obvious when people are struggling pre-clinically. Some people who hold on but don't thrive pre-clinically end up doing really well on rotations, which can change their rank substantially (or in pre-clinical P/F places, entirely).

The majority of people going into psych in my class are very strong, including some genuine class superstars. Still ran into people who assumed going into psych = low board scores. They'd be pretty shocked to see the actual scores and grades of many of us. Whatever.

 

[Amygdarya]

Yeah, I go to a "brand name" school, and I know that people who went into psychiatry from my school over the past few years include multiple MD/PhDs, AOAs and students who excelled otherwise. Like you said, whatever.

 

[Stagg737]

A huge majority of the people at the bottom of the class are ALL pursuing psych and are open about it and strictly don't like the actual basic science of the human systems like GI... Renal... cardio... and I do not blame them.

If you think about it, it makes sense. When you're bottom of the class it's way harder to get into more competitive specialties. Of the less competitive fields, psych has the best lifestyle, solid pay with great potential, and best job outlook. If someone isn't competitive or is looking to "settle", psych is a pretty great option.

I’m saying a UCLA med student told me this. For them it’s considered much less competitive than for DO’s. That was the point of my post.

Every home institution is less competitive for people coming from those institutions than other locations assuming the student from that school did decently on their rotation. So of course UCLA will be less competitive for a UCLA student than a DO as well as most other MD applicants of equal caliber.