New Psychiatrists’ Handbook: 10 Lessons from the Trenches
2,000 new psychiatrists launched their careers this month. Here are 10 things I wish I knew when I started…
- Be a great psychiatrist to your patients. At the same time, find ways to scale your impact on the world beyond the clinic doors.
- Reach out to your local chapter of NAMI and Mental Health America. You will get a more intimate understanding of the community’s behavioral health needs from patient-centered advocacy organizations.
- Get to know what new laws are being considered at the state level and get involved. Local legislators don’t have their own teams of mental health experts. They want and need your help shaping policy.
- So much of your patients’ suffering will be related to childhood trauma. The role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) just wasn’t given the importance it deserves during your training.
- Act with a sense of urgency. Resist the urge to create or join committees and task forces to study problems we know exist. These groups are often formed to delay action. The patient in your ER today isn’t interested in your meetings.
- Collaborate with nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). Some psychiatrists fear these professionals are coming for our jobs. They’re not. Most of them are passionate clinicians who want to learn from you. We’ll never have enough psychiatrists.
- You don’t have to be at an academic center to publish research. In fact, you are well-positioned to do research that informs how best to deliver evidence-based care in real world settings.
- Don’t expect to get paid for everything you do. You will have to invest sweat equity to build the career you want. The return on that investment may take years to materialize, but it will come.
- Learn to embrace change. You’re not going to be in your current job forever and that’s ok. The hospital may switch to a different EHR next month. The supportive clinic director who hired you may leave in January.
- The mental health system of care is broken. No one is going to swoop in and fix it for you. We psychiatrists have to take the lead for things to get better. Identify critical gaps in care and think big. Incremental change isn’t enough.
Godspeed!
Photo Credit: Jack Bell Photography
