Choices Choices

I will be a 3rd year in just two more weeks.  Ack! Time has flown and this means I have two more years left to finish training.  This also means I have to pick a track for the next two years of my training.  Third year of training spans over 12 months of outpatient clinic for all Psychiatry residency training programs.  Outpatient is a different breed.  This is where residents learn to work with patients who are functioning and are able to participate in treatment.  These patients in so many ways help put the inpatient work in a new perspective by shifting the dismal and seemingly hopeless inpatient work to a more stable and predictable one.  Inpatient training teaches residents the art of managing acutely unstable patients from admission to hospital stay and culminating at discharge.  At the same time like any other medical model it seems to have a slew of repeat patients, many admitting multiple times in short periods of time.  That is what sometimes makes many physicians jaded.  I think 3rd year is the perfect time to switch to outpatient so residents can break the cycle for themselves and re-energize before making career decisions moving into 4th year and beyond.  

Like many programs this past year we started assigning PGY-2 residents at least two patients for long term therapy.  I have found therapy to be challenging, at times scary and very rewarding.  What makes it somewhat easier when it seems so hard, is having a supervisor who helps you explore your own emotions and guide you along.  I have to pick a track for 3rd year and I have decided to pick Psychotherapy as my main track, which means I will have at least 9 therapy patients, along with my regular clinic through out the year in addition to the group therapy.  It is daunting and I am not sure if I will be able to handle this but the only way to move forward is to dive in deep and see what happens.

No matter what happens, the bottom line is that I am excited about moving up the ladder, changing work environment and taking up what I love most about psychiatry - healing through words.

Happy PGY-3 to me!!