What is your favorite part(s) of being a psychiatrist?

[WolfBoy3000]

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M2 pretty much decided on the wonderful specialty of psychiatry (staying open-minded though!).
Just looking for a little light at the end of the tunnel to help power through these next couple years of board exams and clerkships.

Thank you!

 

[Sushirolls]

End of M2 I was likely heading toward Gen Surg.
Things change.

You have option to open private practice and be out of hospital politics and Big Box shop bureaucracy. But you can never escape the bureaucracy fully.

 

[randomdoc1]

calling people out
"you're not bipolar, you have bpd and thc is bad for you"

End of M2 I was likely heading toward Gen Surg.
Things change.

You have option to open private practice and be out of hospital politics and Big Box shop bureaucracy. But you can never escape the bureaucracy fully.

"TMS is great and can help you, but your marriage is still toxic"

sorry, dark humor. I like being known as the MD that says it like it is!

 

[comp1]

I adore psychiatry and push MS3's into it every chance I get, but MS2 is too young for marriage. Check back in a year and a half.

 

[FatherPsychiatry]

I adore psychiatry and push MS3's into it every chance I get, but MS2 is too young for marriage. Check back in a year and a half.

I agree. I didn't decide on Psych until MS3 year. I think a big part of MS3 clerkships is not just learning about the science of the field, but also the lifestyle. Get a feel for how the residents and attendings handle things, where their priorities lie (ie, balancing work and life etc). For me, I didn't even think about psych coming into MS3 year but after my rotation which was near the end of the year, it was easily my #1.

 

[WolfBoy3000]

Thanks for the input. I worked in the field before med school so I think I have a bit of a better idea than the typical M2, but I'll be sure to give everything a fair chance.

 

[Dr. Pookie]

I'm in private practice. I love the autonomy, the ability to see the patients I want to see, the money/hour is good, and not dealing with institutional red-tape is priceless.

I also enjoy getting to know patients, having a small cash-only psychotherapy panel, and seeing people get better over time.

 

[J ROD]

I like the variety. Opportunity for side jobs. Not physically demanding and honestly less complex than regular medicine. Primary docs I work with are always so stressed out and stay hours later doing notes.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I like diversity in my work. How many fields could allow me 6 PT jobs currently?

 

[Merovinge]

I like the variety. Opportunity for side jobs. Not physically demanding and honestly less complex than regular medicine. Primary docs I work with are always so stressed out and stay hours later doing notes.

That's interesting, one of my good friends has hit the 10 year mark on being a hospitalist and can do the work on virtual autopilot. He will be profoundly sleep deprived (little kid things) and have no issues getting through the day. He loves working Sundays because he can get most of his work done by noon and largely watch football until swing shift comes in. He never stays late to document.

I really like my job and I think I'm roughly as good clinically at my respective practice as my friend above, but some days are still tough. There is no number of childhood sexual abuse or stranger sexual assault of kids stories that gets any easier for me to hear. There is also something to the bleakness that depression, trauma, and substance use bring on that can be tough. I'm still way more energized than drained by my job, but I still find maximizing each encounter to be much more complex than if I was just following an algorithm for the management of heart failure or sepsis.