I completed my psychiatry rotation earlier this semester and it has been one of my favorites! My eyes were opened to another perspective, I had the opportunity to see how mental illness affects patients' lives, and learned more about the unique psychiatric medications. Common misconception about psychiatrists is that they sit on a couch and listen to the patient's problems and childhood stories while holding up inkblots etc. Those people in your mind are typically psychologists and therapists who use various methods to work through issues bothering the patient. Pyschiatrists are (M.D.) doctors and not only help choose appropriate medications (which is very important because of the multitude of side effects - some dangerous) but they are expert trained in the specific physiology of the chemical imbalances in the patient's illness and must take this into consideration while also managing the other medical illnesses the patient may have (heart or kidney disease for example).
Although the psychiatry rotation was unpredictable with each patient, it was a predictable daily schedule. I spent time in the emergency department for the first half of the rotation doing consults on patients who presented to the emergency department with suicide attempts or suicidal/homicidal thoughts and also helped out with patients who presented with psychotic episodes (odd behaviors, or auditory and visual hallucinations) and distinguish it from illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disease vs. drug intoxications.
7:30 Begin researching patients who are currently in the ED waiting to be seen
8:30 Meet up with resident and attending physician to begin seeing patients in the ED
Break for lunch
See more patients in the ED
5:00 p.m. Head home to study
The second half of the rotation I spent time in an inpatient adult psychiatric unit. The patients stayed in this unit for a variety of reasons. Some people had attempted suicide and we helped start antidepressant therapy while they spent other parts of their day in group and private therapy with psychologists until they were safe to return home. Other patients may not have been managed with correct medications and were having hallucinations and symptoms of their schizophrenia so we helped to correct their medications while they stayed in a safe environment. A few of our patients were admitted for the "up" part of their bipolar disease in a manic episode and needed help monitoring and starting new medications to return to their normal self so that they could return home. In the mornings before rounding on our patients in this unit, we did ECT therapy (not as scary as people imagine, people are under anesthesia and it's only for a minute) for patients with severe schizophrenia or severe depression.
8:00-9:00 ECT Therapy
9:00 - 1:00 Rounding on patients
1:00-4:00 Study and see new patients that were admitted