For my Psychiatry rotation I worked at Metropolitan Hospital’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic. During my five weeks, I saw many patients facing a variety of mental health issues, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, depression, anxiety, and PTSD, along with a variety of social issues such as housing and homelessness. 

The patient visit was split into two categories, new patient intake appointments to establish care at the clinic or follow-up monthly medication management visits. During the intake visit I was able to think critically to establish differential diagnoses and treatment plans. During the monthly medication management visit, I was exposed to the variety of medications used to manage different mental health disorders. I found this experience extremely rewarding and educational. During my didactic year, my most challenging subject was pharmacology. I felt that I had to memorize a large volume of medications and their indications, contraindications, and side effects which I found challenging without real clinical context. This rotation gave me that clinical context and now I feel very comfortable with psychiatric medications.

This rotation also exposed me to a variety of psychiatric presentations. I feel that I can now better tell the difference between a patient who is psychotic, delusional, hypomanic, manic, ect.

All in all, I think that I learned a lot during this rotation. Regardless of whether or not I work in Psychiatry, everyone deals with mental health stressors and this rotation has strengthened my ability to care for patients in this regard.