Is it worth it?? :(

[Desiree]

So i am interested in psychiatry. Really interested. But not too interested in anything else. Meaning muscles and bones, blood vessels (i hate those three especially, find it very boring) and stuff like that. I find psychology interesting but too "soft" since it only looks at the environmental determinants of behaviour. My mom went to medical school, she says knowing me and my interests I am not interested in psychiatry, i am misuderstanding what it is about, that psychiatry is routine work for the most part, and i am more an investigative personality type so i should go into science instead. My granddad was a psychiatrist though, he was also very curious and loved new things and our personalities were somewhat similar and he loved his job...and even wanted my mom to be a psychiatrist saying it is a very interesting job.. but he died when i was still young so i never had a chance to really ask him about psychiatry. I know that the training is 12 years (that's why i'm still not sure if is is worth it or not), and as i understand it, i will only do psychiatry for the last ~3 years of the training, and for 9 years i will have to learn about things i am not too interested in, like learning to stich wounds, learning about anatomy, pathophysiology of ALL the systems, etc. (i can do those things, and i even know about some of them already, just not too passionate about them)...

So I just wanted to ask you guys

1)what do doctors actually do? I know that it depends on where you work, but still? Is it routine work?

2) Is there too much attention given to making people comfortable, "therapeutic communication" etc? Because i am essentially an introvert and i am not at all into small talk with clients just to make them happy and comfortable (don't get me wrong though, i am very polite, and well-mannered, just not too outgoing) i like the communication with clients to be factual and to the point.. is that ok if you want to be a doctor if you are not awfully outgoing?

3)And what do psychiatrists usually do on a daily basis? what is their day like?

4)Also is it easy to find a job being a psychiatrist?

5)Is a new psychiatrist more likely to find a job at the hospital or an outpatient clinic where you meet lots of patients for 15 minutes each day?

6)Is paperwork a huge part of the job, or is it more the actuall diagnosis and treatment while your assistants deal with paperwork?

7)And doctors don't actually treat patients, they just determine what kind of treatment is best in a given situation, and nurses actually treat patients is that right?

Thank you!

[Jewels1986]

I would say the average job in basic science is far more routine than psychiatry, which really isn't routine at all. There is lots of room for curiosity! Psychology is actually quite scientific, though, and looks at people holistically, so you might enjoy it as well - many psychologists are quite cognizant of biological influences on behaviour, they just don't prescribe medications. I'm not sure how old you are, but assuming you're still in high school, why not take some psychology in your undergrad and see how you like it?

 

The training for psychiatry is 3-4 years of undergrad in absolutely anything you enjoy, 3-4 years of medical school, and then 5 years of psychiatry residency.

 

There is not that much paperwork - psychiatrists spend most of their time doing consults and deciding on what medications and therapy would be beneficial. Some do psychotherapy themselves, others delegate that to nurses and social workers.

 

One thing that seems to not quite fit is that you like communication to be factual - both psychiatry and psychology tend to involve a lot of listening to people talk about their lives and emotions and such. That doesn't mean you have to be extroverted though, just interested in people. If you don't enjoy the communication side of things research might be a better fit.

 

It'd probably be a good idea to take some intro courses at university and see what you like, and maybe also shadow some professionals in fields you're interested in. Good luck!

[apache]

Being a good psychiatrist is arguably the most difficult job in medicine, contrary to popular belief, you have to have a strong basis in medicine if you want to give it your all and be thorough with every patient, you also have to have a strong basis on a number of different therapeutic modalities, be comfortable dealing with people from all walks of life, be able to understand the clinical significance of your biological interventions, you also have to be very self aware, to know where your world view, your personal beliefs, how you experience the world comes into play and into interaction with a patient, you have to be able to project another persons experiences and try and experience their decision making vicariously, have extreme patience... psychiatry figures into everything tangentally too, taking a good history, looking for signs of abuse, getting a patient to agree to a treatment regimen and remain dedicated to it are endeavors removed from biology. in psychiatry it's imperative that you're comfortable communicating with patients far beyond a level of small talk or making them feel comfortable, you may be dealing with someone with severe ocd with regard to violent thoughts that just absolutely terrifies them and makes them question what kind of person they are, so that needs effective communication... beliefs vary on this, but i don't think you can be factual and to the point as a modus operandi in psychiatry, of course, if you have a patient that gets off track often, and speaks nebulously you may want to try and ellicit factual responses, but there's no way you can be to the point if you truly want to untangle the web that is a person, intertwined with the persons seasonal depression is perhaps a prior sexual assault, a job the person is unhappy with, an abusive partner, perhaps a major medical condition like type 1 diabetes or hiv... poverty, these things interact in complex ways, so it's a lot harder to practice cookie cutter medicine. it's really impossible to know what a psych does on a day to day basis, are you impatient, child and adolescent, geriatric, general private outpatient, consult liason, psychiatry has the potential for a lot of paperwork, even as an internist, there's tons of paperwork to do every shift. if you work in psychiatry you'll likely be involved in treatment, although in impatient acute wards, forensics, etc. nurses do group therapy, administer meds and stuff. in other specialties it varies, some treatments are very specialized and requires the doctor to administer treatment, if you're just adding diuretics to a patients meds list then the nurse will give it to them at the apropriate time. the job market in psych is quite good compared to most specialties. honestly, you might like med, but i don't think psych's for you.

 

 

 

 

So i am interested in psychiatry. Really interested. But not too interested in anything else. Meaning muscles and bones, blood vessels (i hate those three especially, find it very boring) and stuff like that. I find psychology interesting but too "soft" since it only looks at the environmental determinants of behaviour. My mom went to medical school, she says knowing me and my interests I am not interested in psychiatry, i am misuderstanding what it is about, that psychiatry is routine work for the most part, and i am more an investigative personality type so i should go into science instead. My granddad was a psychiatrist though, he was also very curious and loved new things and our personalities were somewhat similar and he loved his job...and even wanted my mom to be a psychiatrist saying it is a very interesting job.. but he died when i was still young so i never had a chance to really ask him about psychiatry. I know that the training is 12 years (that's why i'm still not sure if is is worth it or not), and as i understand it, i will only do psychiatry for the last ~3 years of the training, and for 9 years i will have to learn about things i am not too interested in, like learning to stich wounds, learning about anatomy, pathophysiology of ALL the systems, etc. (i can do those things, and i even know about some of them already, just not too passionate about them)...

So I just wanted to ask you guys

1)what do doctors actually do? I know that it depends on where you work, but still? Is it routine work?

2) Is there too much attention given to making people comfortable, "therapeutic communication" etc? Because i am essentially an introvert and i am not at all into small talk with clients just to make them happy and comfortable (don't get me wrong though, i am very polite, and well-mannered, just not too outgoing) i like the communication with clients to be factual and to the point.. is that ok if you want to be a doctor if you are not awfully outgoing?

3)And what do psychiatrists usually do on a daily basis? what is their day like?

4)Also is it easy to find a job being a psychiatrist?

5)Is a new psychiatrist more likely to find a job at the hospital or an outpatient clinic where you meet lots of patients for 15 minutes each day?

6)Is paperwork a huge part of the job, or is it more the actuall diagnosis and treatment while your assistants deal with paperwork?

7)And doctors don't actually treat patients, they just determine what kind of treatment is best in a given situation, and nurses actually treat patients is that right?

Thank you!