Recent content by Wednesday

Yes, ob/gyn intern year counts as a PGY 1 for psych. You would have to complete two months of neurology once you transfer to psych. There are several programs on the West coast (and likely elsewhere) that have PGY2 spots every year. Don't despair!

Hi fellow Washingtonians! At least we have the power to release a hold when we have an inpatient, although that is small consolation for dealing with MHPs. I think the worst part is how hard the defense attorneys try to get patients out when they go to court. Often it's people who really need to...

Hi, This is what I do. I completed my internship in ob/gyn and then switched to psychiatry as a PGY2 (no problem getting it to count, as you know ob/gyn is a very medicine heavy specialty, most people don't realize that). Did three years of general psychiatry residency and now I work at a...

I came from an ob/gyn internship and find myself missing ob/gyn quite a bit. I have positioned myself so that I am working with obs and pregnant women, so I use my knowledge a lot, but it's definitely not the same. Overall though, I am happy that I am in psychiatry and think I do the most good...

Anyone on here use either Audio Digest of Practical Reviews? I have been getting lots of ads for them in the mail and disregarding them, but two of the other psychiatrists in my group use one of them and recommend it. I wasn't sure the difference between the two (they both use Audio Digest) and...

I'm not sure about PGY-1 spots now. You could have applied for spots outside the match for next year but it's probably too late now since the match is coming up soon. Scramble is a good idea but might be a long shot. I think that doing a year of internal medicine or a transitional year would be...

I've stopped going over 60 mg unless someone is already on it and has done much better on 60 over 40. Sad because I went to 60 a lot in the past and found it helpful in patients. Found this when I was looking into the data for this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22007855 and Part II...

Who cares what your dream was when you didn't know what any of these fields actually entailed? Your dream got you to medical school, now that you have a much better idea of what day to day tasks as one of those types of doctors are like, you can make a more informed decision. The lifestyle thing...

It's hard to finish residency at UW without a car. Once you're a third year, you will usually need to drive to supervision sometime in the middle of the day. Since you usually have to get back to some clinical site later that day, using public transportation alone would be really hard. Maybe on...

I don't agree with the comment that it's easier for physicians in other fields to deal with "difficult" patients better. They often do a terrible job actually, both with patients they dislike (why patients with schizophrenia often get shoddy medical care) and ones they like (why lots of BPD...

I think that it's good if a program remediates (and sometimes eventually doesn't renew) residents once in a while. It shows that they are not just letting weak residents slide by. My program has an amazing program director and our program let a few people go throughout my years there (after...

We did not have our own offices with our names on the doors at our outpatient clinics no matter how many days you were there per week (this varied by resident). Only the chief resident got this and even that office was used by R2s on the 1/2 day they were in the clinic because there just wasn't...

Hi all, The application asks for a copy of our medical license showing the expiration date. Do they mean a photocopy or do they want us to send some sort of official copy? Anyone know? Thanks in advance!

Thanks Whopper, but I know about moonlighting. In my state/program (as I indicated) we are not allowed to practice (or "moonlight") as a psychiatrist until we are fully trained. We can do disability evals and such and many people do. OP, can you talk to any senior residents about options in...

I don't think you can practice as a psychiatrist until you are fully trained. But this might be specific to my program/state. What about disability evaluations? That's what people in my program do.