UL GEMS Psychiatry

mednod2013

Hey all

First time poster - but have been reading this forum for the past 6 months :P
I sat the GAMSAT there few weeks ago, so now as I'm waiting for my results (on tenderhooks), I decided to put out a few questions in the hopes that may have been successful in gaining a place (wishful thinking, ha!).

Sooooo, I know it's incredibly early days, and I could change once I begin, but bear with me. At the moment, I pretty interested in going down the psych route and have UL down as my first choice. So just wondering from current (or past UL GEMS students), what's the set-up for
psychiatry in UL - as in rotations, lecturers, workload, etc? Has your experience with the psychie stuff been positive in general?

I'm coming from a computer science background (did my undergrad in UL back in the day!) so will be coming to this with a fresh mind.

Thanks

Double decker

rotation in final year, in mwrh or portlaoise. it's 6 weeks hospital placement.

there are pysch cases in year 1 and 2, and you are exposed to primary care mngt of pysch in GP placement.

broadly irrelevant to you.

mednod2013

hey thanks!

Just wondering do ye do lectures in psychiatry also - or is it all pbl?
What is the teaching staff like?

Thanks

Double decker

mednod2013 wrote: »

hey thanks!

Just wondering do ye do lectures in psychiatry also - or is it all pbl?
What is the teaching staff like?

Thanks

yes a few. teaching staff mean well.

mednod2013

Sorry to be a bugger, but would you mind expanding slightly.

Thanks for the great info so far! (Just want to make sure I've put the right place first!)

Double decker

no sorry

mednod2013

um ok. thank you

Nonoperational

I wouldn't worry about it too much. 6 week placement is a decent length, and you can read about as much Psych as you like in your own time. You could make a psych case out of a lot of patients you see anyway! You can also do some psychiatry electives during the summers too if that really floats your boat.


You could easily change your mind as the course progresses too...

Double decker

me going into detail would be a waste of both of our time. psych clinical placement takes up approx 1/24 of your degree. whether it's a great experience or whether it's a **** experience compared to other colleges is broadly irrelevant if you want to do psych. the merits of the different courses, and the research / approaches common in the different hospitals would not mean anything to you. you're not even accepted.

maybe you do know loads about psych in general. probably not, most doctors don't know anything about psych. anyway, if you've nothing better to do I'd encourage you to read a basic neurosciences text book, a basic clinical psychology text book and maybe a pharmacology text book. the contents of which will all be relevant to do your pre-clinical education as well in all areas.

chanste

I finished the psych rotation in UL about 7/8 weeks ago and the people running it are really good. The 1st of 6 weeks of the rotation is a set of various lectures to get you started and then after that you have lectures on Monday and Friday with the days in between placed with a psychiatrist which varies week by week. So for instance you may be with old age psychiatrist in week 2 for Tue - Thur and then child and Adolescent psychiatry for the following week. You will of course see a lot of general psychiatry too. I think what you get out of the placement is what you put in. We were given access to the closed unit (Proper psych ward - secure etc) in Dooradoyle and encouraged to see patients there to take their histories etc.

During the placement we were expected to complete 3 etivities which basically were very short projects such as going to the prison with the psychiatrist and write a short report (500 words). The others I completed were shadowing of the on call psych nurse at the Emergency department, and an "activation session" which entailed trying to organise something for some of the patients on the ward; some people baked (not sure how that worked); some people painted; I played poker with them.

All I can say is that it is not a high pressure rotation compared to paediatrics for example which has a huge amount of work in it and is also 6 weeks. The Professor is really nice (aside: during a recent exam he brought sweets in for his students, which kind of helps with believing that they're working with us) and the tutor is very approachable.

Hope that was of some help. Feel free to ask anything specific, I've still more exams this week so will be procrastinating a lot :-)

mednod2013

Chanste - thank you taking the time for putting together that informative and detailed response. It's great to hear from someone who has been through it, and more-so, has given me great insight into how psych is organised and taught in UL. Feeling really positive about my choice now (fingers crossed eh!).

Best of luck with your exams