What do hospital clinical psychologists do?

[maybedoctor???]

Hello everyone, I am trying to decide what I want to do with my life and I have been looking into clinical psychology. I originally was thinking I would go into medicine and specialize in psychiatry, but now I've decided that I'm not interested enough in medicine as a whole to become a medical doctor. I was wondering if anyone could give me more information about what a clinical psychologist's role is in a hospital setting. I read another thread where someone mention "CL psychology" which sounds interesting. I've heard of CL psychiatry, but not psychology. Was this just a typo or can a psychologist actually do CL work? I'm not sure if I want to be a long term therapist for my patients, but could imagine CL work could be very interesting. Any advice or information will be very helpful! Thank you in advance 🙂 .

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[Justanothergrad]

I assume you mean medical hospital/health setting versus 'hospital' in terms of inpatient psychiatric. Health psychologists will do a variety of things, much of it will be short term (3-5 on the high end for those PC psychologists I know) intervention and a lot of that will focus on brief behavior change related to health - diet, exercise, sleep, med adherence, smoking cessation, etc. They'll also consult for medical procedures, such as barbaric evaluations, and may be asked to do patient consults/warm hand-offs during emotional crisis and difficult diagnostic conversations. Some specialize in cancer and will be attached to those wards to help with end of life planning/adjustment for the client as well as for their families. There is a great deal of variety in the specific type of task depending on the setting worked (e.g., primary care, cancer center, etc.).

Here is some info to get you started.
Primary Care Psychology

 

[psychrat]

Yes, consultation liaison psychology is a thing in the health psychology field. It involves being available for any patients in the hospital who may need brief mental health interventions or assessment. You work as part of an interdisciplinary team and often very closely with psychiatry. Treatments are usually brief (since you often see medical inpatients) and referrals are made for continued care if needed.

 

[deleted343839]

Yes, consultation liaison psychology is a thing in the health psychology field. It involves being available for any patients in the hospital who may need brief mental health interventions or assessment. You work as part of an interdisciplinary team and often very closely with psychiatry. Treatments are usually brief (since you often see medical inpatients) and referrals are made for continued care if needed.

Adding to this, you could also find employment in more specialized inpatient care settings such as rehabilitation, long-term acute care, or palliative care. I work mainly on the outpatient side of things but have done some work with medical/surgical inpatients. I know of a group practice that specializes exclusively in C/L. PM me if you want more information.

 

[NeuroLady]

I specialize in geropsychology and work in a hospital setting. I see outpatients for testing and I also spend a lot of time consulting in inpatient. Patients I see are typically medically complex and have wide range of presenting problems (e.g., depression, SI, rehab difficulties, cognitive concerns, capacity questions, hospice, behavioral concerns, etc.). As mentioned previously, this involves a lot of interdisciplinary team work. Cases vary everyday and the work is never boring.