TIMESTAMPS Inpatient & Forensic Psychiatry 00:29 What is inpatient psychiatry & forensic psychiatry and what are the most common cases you see as a psychiatrist? (psychotic disorder, bipolar, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, criminal trials, competency, insanity etc) 02:06 Are inpatient and forensic psychiatry fellowship or residency track programs? What subspecialties are there in psychiatry and what is the pathway to become a specialized psychiatrist (child, general, adult, forensic, etc)? Do you need to specialize? Also telemedicine / telepsychiatry 03:56 What is a typical day in your life like with multiple clinical jobs, academic roles, and telemedicine? 06:23 Is your lifestyle similar to other psychiatrists? (he’s a contractor) 08:11 How is the inpatient psychiatrist lifestyle different from another doctor specialty? 10:02 What’s the most challenging and rewarding aspects of inpatient & forensic psychiatry? + the value of psychiatry in shaping your perspective for personal development / self improvement 11:55 Are there any misconceptions about being a psychiatrist or psychiatry? 14:21 Why did you choose to specialize in psychiatry? 16:13 Are certain personality types best suited for psychiatry? What about forensics or inpatient psychiatry? What individuals are a good fit for the job? 17:43 How to match into a good psychiatry residency and fellowship program? (for doctors and medical students) 18:51 What employment types and practice settings do psychiatrists work in? Locum tenens, private practice, big group, contractor, Kaiser, etc. 20:26 How much money do psychiatrist make generally and compared to other specialties? 21:31 How can psychiatrists increase their income? How to make more money as a psychiatrist with procedures, etc. 22:16 How do you stay on top of all the medical advances and research in psychiatry? 23:01 How do you avoid burnout? 23:43 How do you manage work life balance with 7 kids and 4+ psychiatrist jobs? 25:32 When should you have kids or start a family in medical training / as a doctor? What’s the best time? 27:04 How does telemedicine and telepsychiatry work? How does compensation work, do you need a medical license in each state you work for, how is scheduling and hiring, etc? 29:01 What big advances do you see in medicine and psychiatry in the future? 30:18 Would you choose the same career path or change anything about how you did things? Any regrets? Would you do medicine again? 31:40 If you couldn’t be a doctor, what would you have become? 32:18 How do we become good doctors?
Hey Adnan! My school's club is hosting a medical panel on the impacts of coronavirus on the medical community. I would love to have you be in the panel. Please let me know if you are interested so I can send you the information via email or whatever other form of communication you would like. Thanks!
Appreciate your interviews man! Really helps to have these insights when trying to narrow down my specialty interests. I'm sure a lot of people are benefiting. Keep it up 🙏🏾🙏🏾
Those are kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum. Do you like doing procedures, quick appointments covering every system, thinking quickly on your feet, rapidly stabilizing and then sending out? That’s more EM. If you like longer time with patients while focusing on one system, deeper histories, and not much physical content on procedures but rather discussion and psych pharm management (not usually behavior change/cbt etc since thats more psychology), then probably psychiatry. I always highly recommend shadowing both to figure out the realistic day to day experiences in each.
Your interviews are great! You should interview a physician who's done the dual family medicine and psychiatry residency. Or any dual residency program :)
Thank you! That’s actually a great idea- I’ll work on it! Just a heads up though, the next few months are busy with boards and applying to residency programs (plus the whole covid problem is getting worse) so it’ll probably be a while.
This was an incredible interview! This psychiatrist answered so many questions that I had about going into thr field and he makes it seem so possible. He's got 7 kiddos! I can do it with 2!
Hey man! If the basic pay is around 200k and this doctor works alot with different hospitals and telemedicine. How much do you think he'll make in an year?....Just wondering how he's managing 7 kids with good work life balance.
eddy 21 the average for psychiatrists in the US is $268k with great hours for inpatient even. I’m sure he makes a good amount with all the other things he does on top of that as well. It’s hard to estimate tbh especially since he may do legal cases on the side, diff telemedicine cases as you mentioned, etc
Hey Adnan, I know this question is nuanced due to the difference in individuals’ rate of knowledge acquisition and past experience with a subject. Nevertheless, how many hours a day have you seen students who match into competitive specialties study per day/week during regular weeks (not cramming blocks). I see individuals posting that they study for 65-70 hours per week. But, I have been studying for 4-5 hours per day for a while (tracking with Forrest) now and my cognitive abilities are fairly low due to exhaustion by the end. My sessions look like Anki Review, 1.5-3 hours of Khan or AK Lectures, and writing out Anki questions. I’ve also read some studies where scientists believe that 4 hours of intense concentration per day during skill acquisition is a limit. So, hearing that these students are studying 8-11 hours per day confuses and intimidates me. These stats are from The Student Doctor Network and Reddit, so they could certainly be inflated which I’ve found before.
Hey Garrett, As you suggested, this is very nuanced, and people aren’t often the most open about or accurate with their study habits. I’ve known brilliant people who slide through with just a few a day and match into really competitive programs, but most people who go into those sought after specialties tend to be studying very hard (a lot of the day, unfortunately), though I noticed they still have days off or make time each day for some things they like such as self care, a quick show, etc. If you’re doing well now then I wouldn’t change anything, but if you feel you’re not getting the stats you need for whatever specialty program you’re trying to get into, I would try study blocks (maybe 3 hrs in the morning and 3 at night, then increase those), alternative study methods esp when you get bored, seeing how efficient you are in those “on” study periods and finding ways to maximize your efficient periods, using different on/off schemes like 25/5, etc. 8-11 hours a day is a lot, but I’ve seen people do it. Sometimes you just have to build up to it. Also in terms of resources, 3 hours of passive video watching is a lot, in my opinion, unless it’s early in the block. I would also add more qbank work since that’s high yield learning. Question banks, anki, video, etc could be great to cycle between when you’re feeling tired or bored. Also consider experimenting with using a premade deck if you’re running out of time or energy making your own. A lot of it is trial and error and slowly increasing your overall study abilities over weeks and months. I hope some of this helped!
Also yes, some numbers are inflated and you don’t necessarily need to study all day and night to get into the specialty you want. A lot of people I know that matched into competitive specialties did study very hard most of the day but also went very hard in the limited time they had doing what they liked- gymming, drinking/partying, etc
Adnan A Thank you very much for the thoughtful reply. I should have clarified...I am a non-traditional pre-med. I’m only halfway through my prerequisites. That is why I’m spending so much time watching videos instead of practice questions. I’m still learning the content. I really like your suggestion to use a pre-made Anki deck. There are many pre med decks available on Reddit from people who made high MCAT scores. The decks are also very organized.
While medical school is about three years away for me, I still want to go ahead and form good habits. That is why I was asking the question about hours per week. I agree that I can train myself to work for longer hours during the day. I think your suggestion about blocks is a good one. I’m most worried concerning burn out when studying for 8 hours per day, 6-7 days per week. I’ve experienced burn out before, and it is very, very rough. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best study strategies so that the time I spend can be capitalized on, and I can free up more time to try and mitigate the effects of burn out. All of the specialties which I have shadowed and enjoyed require high board scores, so there is an added pressure there.
No problem! I find that non-traditional pre-medical students often bring a breath of experiences and fresh opinions to the table that are valuable when they become clinicians. You seem dedicated, hard-working, and self aware, and I’m sure you will do well. You just need to experiment and slowly build up your study skills as you go. You got this!
