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Dian Cecht

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Posts posted by Dian Cecht

  1. Would anyone like to give their thoughts on how the current government's policies have affected psychiatry?

    The situation with family med is well documented for many reasons, are psychiatrists leaving in more significant numbers as well anecdotally due to changes in this government's policy towards doctors?

  2. 17 hours ago, MSWschnoodle said:

    In my late 30s and currently a psych resident. DM me with questions or for the full story but in short I have several degrees, have been on a few different career tracks (some cool, some less cool) all with long term jobs and was a late arrival to medicine. Went in to medicine wanting psych, tried a few other things that were cool but psychiatry is where my heart lies. 

    In terms of the suggestion above of doing clinical psychology or an MSW instead of psychiatry: I have an MSW (and practiced with it) and many of the things you do in psychiatry are very different from what you do with an MSW. There is an area of overlap but you need to be *really* sure you want to only do that small slice of the full breadth of psychiatric practice if you decide to go the alternate direction. As a psychiatrist you can narrow your practice to a small slice if you want to or broaden it out if you find things getting stale. The same can be said for MSW or. Psychology but each one broadens in a different direction and there will be skills/activities in each that are unique. You need to make sure you're in the right circle of the Venn diagram when it comes to these 3 routes. 

    In terms of time investment, an MD+ psychiatry is going to be 8-10 years (3 or 4 years medical school + 5 year residency +/- fellowship if you have a subspecialty interest). An MSW would be shorter at ~5-6 years (depending on program and thesis vs. capstone) if you determine that an MSW would give you the practice you want. Clinical psychology requires graduate level training (PhD in most provinces, Masters in a few select locations) so it's not much shorter than the route to psychiatry... especially when you consider that residents get paid a lot more than most graduate students. You'll have to weigh the length of training vs. pay vs. desired practice variables. 

    Sure psych has gotten a bit more competitive but realistically a majority of people who want psych as their first choice still get it. It's a fun discipline with a decent lifestyle. The co-workers and co-residents you get to hang out with are pretty great. Being an older applicant in psych is often an advantage (life experience pays dividends in this discipline) and you can have a lot of career longevity if you want it (there are plenty of 70+ year old psychiatrists still working).

     

    I thought about clinical psychology, as wonderful as psychology is I feel its been a doctor is what I want to be and what that entails.

  3. On 3/31/2020 at 11:59 AM, initrams said:

    Where have you heard this??

    I think Prince George may not be the most ideal/desired location for some people due to the extreme cold weather and snow and also crime rates in Prince George are considerably higher in PG than other places- having said this, this is just speculation of why people may not like. I have never been to PG but I have heard great things about the area as far as outdoors activities.  

     

    Forgive me,  I should clarify it is related to comments from people who have applied and primarily interested in the rural campus.

    And seeing this made me wonder why , the points you brought up certainly crossed my mind too, and they certainly will influence first choices.

  4. 10 hours ago, ellorie said:

    Not as far as I know. There aren’t nearly so many programs as in the US so there isn’t much need. 

    They mostly all have their ups and downs depending on what your specific interests and needs are. 

    The bigger programs like UBC and Toronto are typically quite competitive. And the largest cities tend to have the most niche/subspecialty stuff. When I went through, Calgary was fairly competitive as well, though I had a weird elective experience there. 

    How is McGill perceived in terms of its psych residency program?

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