Now that you've got interviews, can we talk?...

[lu2003]

Hey everyone,
This forum is really moving! Can any of you tell the rest of us about how you came to decide on psych, if you've had research experience, and any impressions thus far?

Thanks!

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[Thewonderer]

Three words: patients, patients and patients. There are no patients who are as fascinating as psych patients. I did not consider that field until after I did my psych core rotation. Before that, it was not even on my radar. I also like to spend time with patients (instead of other fields where you spend 7 minutes examining them, but NOT even talking to them, and then 5 minutes filling up your paperworks and dicate).

I would do psych even if it has surgery-type of hours.

 

[leaf]

1) Why psych: Well, I'd always been interested in human behavior, but I hadn't actually planned on entering psychiatry when I started med school. But when I did my 3rd-year rotation, I fell in love with everything about it -- talking with the patients (which you don't get to do as much on any other rotation), working with psych residents (who were the nicest residents I'd worked with, or at least the ones who clicked best with me), writing the notes, etc. After doing two sub-Is, I realized that I just had so much more fun on my psych sub-I and that no other area of medicine seemed as appealing to me. I've encountered a good amount of pressure from non-psych types who don't value the field and say it doesn't require intelligence, involves working with scary people, isn't *real* medicine, etc., but I'd disagree. I think it requires a lot of thought and logic, just a different kind from what many medical school people are used to thinking about. It also does require a good amount of medical knowledge: For instance, just this afternoon I was trying to decide if one antidepressant would be safe for a patient with a bunch of cardiovascular problems and what kind of cardiotoxic effects another antidepressant had.

2) No research experience other than college. I don't think it's hurt me, though I suppose I'd have no way of knowing if it had.

3) Impressions so far? Not quite sure what you mean -- impressions of what? All I can say is, nothing has changed my mind yet about psych.

 

[lu2003]

Thanks for your replies. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to go into psych, why I want to go into it, and so forth. I have my rotation after this one, so I'll try to get as much of it as I can. In any case, thanks for your insights.