Your experience in C/A psychiatry please?

[guppy3]

I'm considering psychiatry as a field because although I'm certain that I want to go into pediatrics, but I want a field that has more patient interaction. I have extensively shadowed in a pediatric BMT unit, and observed that the doctors don't really spend a lot of time with their patients. I'm not always the best with kids, but I love working with them, and I've been told that my personality would fit into psychiatry. Also, this is probably not the best thing a pre-med should say, I'm not a huge fan of "blood and guts". I'm sure I can manage through medical school, but I don't imagine that I could enjoy the ER or surgery. Overall, it just seems like I would fit into psychiatry.

But, what I think psychiatry is like is probably much different than the reality (that's what I learned when I first started shadowing in pediatrics). I would love to hear some stories, good or bad, about your experience. How did you decide that psychiatry was right for you? I've been having trouble finding a position shadowing a child psychiatrist so I would appreciate any insight!

Thanks!

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[JellyBDO]

I'm considering psychiatry as a field because although I'm certain that I want to go into pediatrics, but I want a field that has more patient interaction. I have extensively shadowed in a pediatric BMT unit, and observed that the doctors don't really spend a lot of time with their patients. I'm not always the best with kids, but I love working with them, and I've been told that my personality would fit into psychiatry. Also, this is probably not the best thing a pre-med should say, I'm not a huge fan of "blood and guts". I'm sure I can manage through medical school, but I don't imagine that I could enjoy the ER or surgery. Overall, it just seems like I would fit into psychiatry.

But, what I think psychiatry is like is probably much different than the reality (that's what I learned when I first started shadowing in pediatrics). I would love to hear some stories, good or bad, about your experience. How did you decide that psychiatry was right for you? I've been having trouble finding a position shadowing a child psychiatrist so I would appreciate any insight!

Thanks!

Hi Guppy! I am a current Triple Board Applicant, which is a 5 year program consisting of 2 years of pediatrics, 18 mos of adult psychiatry, 18 mos of child psychiatry. After your training you have the opportunity to become boarded in all three specialties. I had a hard time deciding between child psychiatry and pediatrics. I loved the idea of this program - you really do get to treat the whole child and the whole family with this training.

AACAP - American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has a great website for medical students. I would check it out.

Best of luck in your decision. Let me know if you have any more ?s about Triple Board or anything.

 

[guppy3]

Thanks for the response! I'm so glad you told me about the triple boards, it seems like I can save a lot of time, and have to go through less adult medicine!

At what point do you do the triple board? Is it after you finish medical school or after the residency?

What kinds of patients do you encounter working in child psych? I've heard of fellowship programs for Child Abuse, does that fall under this category or would I have to do an extra three years for that?

 

[JellyBDO]

The Triple Board Program is a residency program. You would apply for it through ERAS during your 4th year of medical school. It is a 5 year residency program - where general pediatric medicine is 3 years, adult psychiatry is 4 years, child and adolescent psychiatry is a 2 year fellowship. Some institutions will all you to "fast track" to child and adolescent psychiatry - making the combination of psychiatry training 5 years.


The Triple Board sequence usually goes as follows - Your first year is generally pediatric medicine - NICU, PICU, floors, etc. Your second year is generally adult psychiatry. Third year you do generally do both adult psychiatry and are a senior on pediatric medicine rotations. You would see the same patients that a child psychiatry fellow would see - generally beginning your 4th or 5th year of the program.

You can see patients on the pediatric medicine floors as part of the psychiatry consult and lesion service, you can be on the inpatient child/adolescent unit for a variety of cases including developmental disabilities, new onset psychosis, depression, eating disorders, etc.

I am not too familiar with child abuse fellowships (generally 1-3 years after you complete residency), but you will be exposed to those patients during your residency. However, if that is an area you would want to specialize in - a fellowship program may be an option for you.

http://www.aacap.org/cs/students.residents.ecp

http://www.tripleboard.org/

The above website really helped me out. Good luck! Let me know if you have anymore ?s.

 

[myPsychAlt]

this about sums up most of my C&A experiences...especially emergency psych...

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/153246/i-do-what-i-want

 

[Cinnameg]

I'm considering psychiatry as a field because although I'm certain that I want to go into pediatrics, but I want a field that has more patient interaction. I have extensively shadowed in a pediatric BMT unit, and observed that the doctors don't really spend a lot of time with their patients. I'm not always the best with kids, but I love working with them, and I've been told that my personality would fit into psychiatry. Also, this is probably not the best thing a pre-med should say, I'm not a huge fan of "blood and guts". I'm sure I can manage through medical school, but I don't imagine that I could enjoy the ER or surgery. Overall, it just seems like I would fit into psychiatry.

But, what I think psychiatry is like is probably much different than the reality (that's what I learned when I first started shadowing in pediatrics). I would love to hear some stories, good or bad, about your experience. How did you decide that psychiatry was right for you? I've been having trouble finding a position shadowing a child psychiatrist so I would appreciate any insight!

Thanks!

I went to medical school knowing I wanted to do either psychiatry or neurology, and leaning towards psych, so your post reminded me of when I was making a similar decision. I decided to go to medical school. At times it's been tough, mostly because on my third year rotations not everyone responded well to the idea they might be training a future psychiatrist. People within medicine have strong opinions about the field of psychiatry, positive or negative. I had an attending during one of my third year rotations who liked to say psychiatry is "a whole different animal" when compared to the rest of medicine. On many other occasions, when asked what specialty I wanted to go into (which is a really really common question in med school) and I listed psych and neuro, people would tell me point blank to go into neuro because they didn't think well of psych. So, that was not fun.

As far as the "blood and guts": not a problem. You are going to have to make sure you don't have a nausea reaction to cadavers or to surgery (which I don't, thank goodness). But, that said, it's not a big deal. During first year there were 11 weeks of anatomy with 2 hours of cadaver work every day, then in 3rd year there were 5 weeks of surgery, and 4th year another 4 weeks of surgery. Sum total, that's not a lot of time. I really didn't like anatomy but it would have been a mistake to let it deter me from going to medical school.

Check out the possibilities of being a therapist (PhD, PsyD, MSW) or a psychiatric nurse practitioner before committing to medical school. Although I thought about being a psychologist, I'd never even heard of a psychiatric nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant specializing in psychiatry before I chose to go to medical school. I would still have made the same decision, but I'd suggest you really check out all of the options for how to do similar jobs, with good pay and lots of people interaction, without accruing the debt and stress of medical school.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions at all.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I went to medical school knowing I wanted to do either psychiatry or neurology, and leaning towards psych, so your post reminded me of when I was making a similar decision. I decided to go to medical school. At times it's been tough, mostly because on my third year rotations not everyone responded well to the idea they might be training a future psychiatrist. People within medicine have strong opinions about the field of psychiatry, positive or negative. I had an attending during one of my third year rotations who liked to say psychiatry is "a whole different animal" when compared to the rest of medicine. On many other occasions, when asked what specialty I wanted to go into (which is a really really common question in med school) and I listed psych and neuro, people would tell me point blank to go into neuro because they didn't think well of psych. So, that was not fun.

As far as the "blood and guts": not a problem. You are going to have to make sure you don't have a nausea reaction to cadavers or to surgery (which I don't, thank goodness). But, that said, it's not a big deal. During first year there were 11 weeks of anatomy with 2 hours of cadaver work every day, then in 3rd year there were 5 weeks of surgery, and 4th year another 4 weeks of surgery. Sum total, that's not a lot of time. I really didn't like anatomy but it would have been a mistake to let it deter me from going to medical school.

Check out the possibilities of being a therapist (PhD, PsyD, MSW) or a psychiatric nurse practitioner before committing to medical school. Although I thought about being a psychologist, I'd never even heard of a psychiatric nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant specializing in psychiatry before I chose to go to medical school. I would still have made the same decision, but I'd suggest you really check out all of the options for how to do similar jobs, with good pay and lots of people interaction, without accruing the debt and stress of medical school.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions at all.

Cinnameg, what actually swayed your opinion where you decided that neurology wasn't for you or at very least a dual residency in neuro/psych wasn't for you?

Getting ready to go into medical school I'm wrestling with the same decision but looking at FP/Psych, and could definitely see myself attending a dual residency for these two specialties (looking at practicing in a fairly rural area).

 

[Cinnameg]

Cinnameg, what actually swayed your opinion where you decided that neurology wasn't for you or at very least a dual residency in neuro/psych wasn't for you?

Getting ready to go into medical school I'm wrestling with the same decision but looking at FP/Psych, and could definitely see myself attending a dual residency for these two specialties (looking at practicing in a fairly rural area).

A few things went into my decision: (1) Length of residency for dual programs (2) Liking what psychiatrists did on a day-to-day basis better than what neurologists did, even though I found both disease sets equally interesting (3) Not having a very good reason to do a dual program, and nobody being able to give me a good career reason to do a dual program. In fact, most people told me that it was just putting off choosing between the specialties, as eventually I would be practicing one much more than the other. (4) Not very many dual programs, only one of which was at a place I really wanted to go (5) Dual programs are somewhat isolating as you are the only resident in your class.

On my rural rotation, I found myself liking family medicine, and I asked the family docs about dual residencies in family and psych. I was told that there was such a need for psychiatrists in rural areas that anyone thinking of a dual residency should just go ahead and be a psychiatrist, because those are the patients they would fill their day with anyway. On my rural rotation the patients with psych issues had to wait months to get in to see a psychiatrist unless they wanted to drive several hours to see one in the nearest urban area.

 

[guppy3]

A year later and I'm officially Class of 2016 **happy dance**

My interest in psychiatry has gotten stronger, specifically looking at child development. For these residency programs, is research in psychiatry a must? Are there certain activities that you would recommend I complete to be competitive for these residencies? I'm very torn between devoting my time to research, where my chances of being published are most likely minimal, or to doing community outreach work, such as working in local elementary schools on prevention/advocacy. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

P.S. I've gotten immensely helpful responses - I really appreciate it!