What is everyone's technique for "lifelong learning"?

[lockian]

Hi, I'm a PG4 and I'm nervous about losing all the built-in CME that comes with residency.

How does everyone keep up with the latest research? What's the most efficient way to fill in your gaps in knowledge between long days of seeing patients and being a slave to documentation?

I'm subscribed to the APA newsletter, American Journal of Psychiatry, doximity articles vetted to my specialty, and of course there's the random lexicomp, psychopharmacopeia and pubmed searches when I have a specific question. I also have algorithms from StarD and a set of antipsychotic and mood stabilizer effectiveness vs side effect graphs that I live by. But sometimes I don't know what I don't know unless I hear an attending or a peer bring it up.

Also, what's everyone's favorite medication interaction checker?

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[clausewitz2]

Hi, I'm a PG4 and I'm nervous about losing all the built-in CME that comes with residency.

How does everyone keep up with the latest research? What's the most efficient way to fill in your gaps in knowledge between long days of seeing patients and being a slave to documentation?

I'm subscribed to the APA newsletter, American Journal of Psychiatry, doximity articles vetted to my specialty, and of course there's the random lexicomp, psychopharmacopeia and pubmed searches when I have a specific question. I also have algorithms from StarD and a set of antipsychotic and mood stabilizer effectiveness vs side effect graphs that I live by. But sometimes I don't know what I don't know unless I hear an attending or a peer bring it up.

Also, what's everyone's favorite medication interaction checker?

1) Every time you read a paper or book, add every reference to something that sounds interesting or surprising to your list of things to read

2) when you are done with the paper or book, go to the next one on your list and repeat

3) read from your never-ending list forever

I also tend to regularly search for announcements of new drug phase ii/III results, as then you can find the papers actually detailing the studies and decide for yourself if they seem legitimate. Plus they will tend to cite newer other literature for your list.


Pick your six favorite journals and go to their websites once a month. Look for any titles that seem relevant or interesting. They go on the list.

Reading papers online these days usually means on the side are "Cited by" links to newer literature. Add the interesting ones to the list.

Mileage may vary depending on how fast you read, but I find textbooks useful as overviews in areas I am less familiar with and as a means of populating the list.

 

[Jules A]

I generally attend at least two conferences a year in locations I like to visit, usually Boston, Vegas and Florida. My focus tends toward particular speakers, topics and known quality of refreshments served.

 

[WisNeuro]

I still teach and supervise. Revising my presentations periodically helps to keep up with certain changes in the literature. Additionally, I stay involved in research, and still get asked to peer review submitted manuscripts for several journals. These things kind of force me to stay up to date at least somewhat in certain areas.

 

[Armadillos]

I like the NEJM Psychiatrist Journal watch flier. In about 30 minutes a month I can get a good summary of what they think are relevant publications from the month before.

 

[whopper]

1) Don't work in just one thing for too long. E.g. do inpatient, emergency psych, outpatient, partial hospitalization, rehab, intensive outpatient, PACT teams. After you've done each for several months you'll get the learning curve more and more and these curves aren't plateaued in residency.

2) Work in academia for at least a few years after residency. Go to a top place. Psych is still a field where top places are still very accessible to new graduates. Working in a large university hospital marries well with #1.

3) Teach.

4) Work with the best. Marries well with #2.

5) Don't do the above just at one place. Intellectual incest will occur. Where I did residency, they all used the playbook of the best doctor there who was a great doctor but not the best in the field. When I worked with the best in the field I learned their playbooks and saw very different perspectives. It goes beyond this. Working one location will only expose you to a limited window of a type of patient. The psychiatrist I was right after residency had almost no real good experience in treating ADHD, and because inpatient was the best the residency had to offer I was unknowingly highly biased towards the disorders that tended to cause inpatient hospitalizations.

6) Keep up with journals, CMEs.

7) Keep good relationships with mental health specialists outside of psychiatry who can keep you sharp and updated on other non-psychiatric areas. E.g. have a neuropsych person that can do good testing, MMPI, etc.

8) Keep yourself surrounded by people who keep you sharp. Compete with them in a healthy manner.

 

[clausewitz2]

1) Don't work in just one thing for too long. E.g. do inpatient, emergency psych, outpatient, partial hospitalization, rehab, intensive outpatient, PACT teams. After you've done each for several months you'll get the learning curve more and more and these curves aren't plateaued in residency.

2) Work in academia for at least a few years after residency. Go to a top place. Psych is still a field where top places are still very accessible to new graduates. Working in a large university hospital marries well with #1.

3) Teach.

4) Work with the best. Marries well with #2.

5) Don't do the above just at one place. Intellectual incest will occur. Where I did residency, they all used the playbook of the best doctor there who was a great doctor but not the best in the field. When I worked with the best in the field I learned their playbooks and saw very different perspectives. It goes beyond this. Working one location will only expose you to a limited window of a type of patient. The psychiatrist I was right after residency had almost no real good experience in treating ADHD, and because inpatient was the best the residency had to offer I was unknowingly highly biased towards the disorders that tended to cause inpatient hospitalizations.

6) Keep up with journals, CMEs.

7) Keep good relationships with mental health specialists outside of psychiatry who can keep you sharp and updated on other non-psychiatric areas. E.g. have a neuropsych person that can do good testing, MMPI, etc.

8) Keep yourself surrounded by people who keep you sharp. Compete with them in a healthy manner.

Yes, so much this. Aspire to always be the dumbest person in the room whenever you can. That's how learning happens.

 

[whopper]

I mentioned this before. Gordon Ramsay, one of the world's best chefs occasionally goes to a country and tries to learn their cooking methods. No he doesn't go to a high-end restaurant in his white chef's uniform. He'll live with a village for a few days and prepare meals out in the middle of some place no one wanting a pleasant vacation would like to attend (e.g. a village in a jungle in a Polynesian island, India, China, Vietnam, etc). During the documentaries he's done he's so so so humble because he's the student and he always wanted his teacher to give him upfront and brutally honest evaluations.

 

[Stagg737]

I plan to just read and re-read the comprehensive Kaplan and Saddock until I die. Kidding, but skimming through the TOC and some sections I realized there are sections that

I also tend to regularly search for announcements of new drug phase ii/III results, as then you can find the papers actually detailing the studies and decide for yourself if they seem legitimate. Plus they will tend to cite newer other literature for your list.

Do you have certain sources you use to find these or just google them?