psych life style? - md96

[ArchivalUser]

does any of psych guys can tell me about psyckh life style, I mean residency and afterward. how difficult is the residency, how are the calls? how safe is to be with mentally ill patient in the hospital. I would appreciate any input.
thx

[ArchivalUser]

Lifestyle - better than IM anyday but less money if ur going into Gastro or Cardio.

Call- usually around q5-q7 in the first year..the program I am with has q7 during psych(4mths), q5 during neuro (2 mths), no overnight call in medicine (4mths..yahoo)..I have 2 mths elective (not decided yet).

Safety- there is usually a concern with safety in Psych but it is imho an overhyped concern..I am sure family physicians and surgeons deal with the occassional belligerent patient but stories of a mentally stable patient assaulting someone never get the same attention as a psychiatric patient who hurts someone...and psych wards have all sorts of safety mechanisms in place: panic buttons in interview rooms, glass windows for easy observation, presence of guards et al....with appropriate safety precautions, I dont think it should be a problem (compare it with a surgeon not choosing to operate on someone with HIV)

[ArchivalUser]

wannabepsych, thank you for the usefule information, do you have info about hartford psych program in CT?

[ArchivalUser]

R u asking about the Institute of Living or Univ of Connecticut?

[ArchivalUser]

yes

[ArchivalUser]

which one finally? I interviewed at the Institute of Living, really nice place, long history as a stand alone psych hospital, great faculty, the PD Dr. Bentmann is a fabulous lady. the rest of the faculty is also very talented. some interesting research there using video games. fellowship in Child present. There is diversity in the patients (esp. from the Dominican Republic which makes it interesting). The campus is very pretty with a lot of old trees (sometimes they had didactics in summer outside) but the city itself is not the best to live in and the location of the program in Downtown is reflective of the that. A very laid back program though...call was easy and a lot of emphasis on learning (I remember the patient cap was very small compared to the other programs I had interviewed at)..the residents were happy and easy going and had a good percentage of IMG population. The program coordinator Sonya Dupre was also very nice and quick to reply to my queries.

The program is strong in Psychotherapy and does have psychoanalysts as part of the faculty so if thats something that interests you IOL is a good program for that.

IOL joined with U Conn a few years ago but they split up about 4 years ago so this year the graduating class of PGY4 was the first one to come out of the independent IOL program in a while (that was my major concern about the program and the fact that the location was not so hot)..they give the J1 and not the H1..they did give out prematches this year to a few people as well.

Hope this helped.

[ArchivalUser]

Didnt interview at UConn so cant say anything about it

[ArchivalUser]

wannabepsych, ,Thank you very much, you answered all my q's. I have one more q to ask: what's wrong with the city? I'm not familiar with Ct at all.
Thank you again for taking your time and giving me informations, It's so nice of you.
MD96

[ArchivalUser]

there is nothing "wrong" in the city per se, it was just that during my visit I didnt feel that I would enjoy living in Hartford..its all a matter of the goodness of fit theory...