Psychiatry Recap

At the end of each rotation, I'm going to try to write down all the pros and cons of the specialty so that at the end of third year, hopefully I will be able to look back and actually decide which one I want to pursue as a career for the rest of my life.  So, here we go!

Pros:
- The hours are unbeatable.  As an attending, you only work 9-5 and almost never on weekends.  The residents have more time off than nearly every other specialty, yet they somehow still get paid more than most other residents
- The people are laid back.  One time, I was worried about getting something done by a certain deadline, and my resident told me, "Stop worrying about it!  This is Psych, not Internal Medicine."
- The patients are one-of-a-kind.  Sure, I saw dozens of patients with psychosis, but their hallucinations and delusions were never the same.  A new story every day to keep me entertained!

Cons:
- The field of Psychiatry still carries a stigma, and many doctors don't consider it "real medicine."  It's highly subjective, and there are few diagnostic tests for many Psychiatric diseases, which sort of makes it the ugly step-sister in the field of evidence-based medicine.
- Not all, but a lot of Psychiatrists don't deal with other medical problems.  In the inpatient unit, patients that develop medical conditions are immediately sent to a bed on the medicine floors to be managed by an IM doctor.  The psychiatrists themselves rarely have to deal with A-a gradients and PFTs.
- Some of the patients can be really, really annoying.  Especially the ones who are malingering.  During my brief month in Roanoke, I saw several people discharged and return within days.  It can also be very frustrating dealing with people who simply won't quit their drug habits and people who have Borderline Personality Disorder and try to manipulate the healthcare team.

Best Psychiatry Pun I Came Up With:
Out of Psych, Out of Mind. 

Next month, I'm on Neurology at UVA.  And do you know what that means?

Titan's back!