Psychiatry. For me, the experience of this rotation was one of the most surprising of all. But looking back and reflecting on who I am as an individual, maybe I shouldn’t have been in the slightest. Coming into medical school, and throughout the first two years, I never really considered psychiatry as a possibility. In fact, I used to be of the mindset that all of this studying of medical disease processes would have been for nothing if I ultimately chose to go into psychiatry. So what changed my mind to the point of really considering psychiatry as a profession?
As I stated in my post about my surgery rotation, I learned that I truly value spending time with patients and having an on-going dialogue with them. In no other rotation this year was I awarded the luxury of spending upwards of 30 minutes with each patient. During my psychiatry rotation it was encouraged to spend at least this much time with each patient, getting to know them and build rapport. My resident said it best when he told me, “we are seeing these patients at maybe the most vulnerable point in their lives, and because of our profession they feel safe enough to share their vulnerabilities with us.” This was an extremely powerful message to me and I will hold onto it no matter what specialty I choose, as I believe it applies to physicians at large.
While talking to patients during this rotation, I quickly realized these were some of the most interesting patient cases I would see during medical school. And depending on if the patient was severely depressed, acutely manic, or in acute psychosis, I would have to be adaptable in the manner and tone in which I conducted the interview and counseled the patient. This variability in how I would have to conduct each interview was exciting to me; no matter what I read in the patient’s chart before seeing them, I would have to be ready to adapt when talking to them face-to-face. Altogether, this has me hopeful for an exciting career in psychiatry if I choose to pursue it. I feel as if I would never get bored of hearing each individual patient’s story and finding the best treatment for them, whether it be through medication, psychotherapy, or a combination of both.
Another major reason I am considering psychiatry is the culture set by the residents and the attending I worked with. Granted I only worked with two residents and one attending, however I could tell that this was the norm in psychiatry from talking to other medical students about their experiences during the rotation. My residents took time every day to go over my notes with me and discuss various topics in psychiatry, including the pros and cons of choosing psychiatry as a specialty. During rounds, my attending made sure that me and my fellow medical students were learning something of importance from each patient case. My attending even dispelled my pre-conceived notions of psychiatry being separate from medicine, saying “as a future physician and physicians, we should never forget medicine and medical causes of psychiatric conditions.”
To be honest, there is only one thing holding me back from fulling committing to psychiatry. It’s the internal question of “will this all be too much for me to handle?” Will I take on the burdens of my patients, and not be able to separate work from my own life? Through reflection on myself and my own mental health, I admit that I am emotional and things can affect me quite easily. But I also know that these traits are exactly why I care so much and would want to help those struggling with mental illnesses. It truly is a double-edged sword, and if psychiatry is what I choose to pursue I know that I will have to take the proper steps to make sure my own mental health is taken care of so I can be the best physician I can be.
It is unfortunately a trend, in all fields of medicine, that physicians are so busy taking care of patients that they forget to take care of themselves. However mental health is rapidly becoming de-stigmatized in the media, with athletes such as Michael Phelps sharing their own struggles in an attempt to normalize talking about a once taboo subject. Hopefully this trend will continue, and professionals in the medical field will follow suit and take care of their own mental health. This can only lead to happier and healthier physicians, with the likely result of better care received by their patients.
