Rigorous psychiatry training helps medical students relate with their future patients, experts say. Experts say that the prevalence of mental illness means that every future doctor needs a solid foundation of psychiatric training during medical school. A serious mental illness can be costly. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. workers lose nearly $200 billion in wages every year when mental health problems interfere with their ability to work. "There's a huge need and a lot of good that people can do in this field," says Dr. Brett Kaylor, chief resident in psychiatry at Augusta University in Georgia. Medical school professors and practicing physicians say that every medical student needs rigorous training in the fundamentals of psychiatry during medical school, even those who do not intend to specialize in psychiatry after medical school. Here are three reasons why experts say it is essential to attend a medical school that offers a comprehensive introduction to psychiatry. 1. Future doctors should be prepared to treat patients who suffer from a mental illness.Experts say no matter what a medical student's career plans are, he or she will most likely encounter many patients with mental health concerns as a physician. According to statistics from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly a fifth of U.S. adults cope with a mental illness in a given year. Experts say it is difficult to provide this large segment of the U.S population with effective medical care without understanding their psychiatric condition and its impact on their overall health. "The brain is a complicated organ, and these are complicated diseases that have a major impact on other organs," says Dr. Joe Parks, medical director for the National Council for Behavioral Health and professor at the Missouri Institute of Mental Healthat University of Missouri—St. Louis. Parks says that training in psychiatry is particularly important for medical students who plan to focus on primary care or internal medicine. "Psychiatric illnesses are the most common illnesses that a general practitioner runs into," Parks says. "They are the most common cause of disability." Parks says that all medical students should have at least six weeks of clinical rotations in psychiatry and ideally eight weeks. "Choose medical schools that have longer psych rotations," he says. "Four weeks is not adequate." 2. Psychiatry offers important lessons on how doctors can establish strong relationships with patients. Experts say that clinical training in psychiatry teaches medical students how to empathize with patients even when they are being difficult, which is a transferable skill that medical students can apply throughout their careers as doctors. “At the core of all medicine, no matter what specialty you are dealing with is the patient – the person," says Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, a professor of psychiatry and chair of the psychiatry department at Columbia University. "There needs to be the ability to develop a rapport and a therapeutic relationship with the person." Lieberman, who is also the psychiatrist-in-chief at New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, says that training in psychiatry is one of the best ways for medical students to learn how to communicate effectively with their patients. "It'll help you no matter what you do," he says. Kaylor of Augusta University says psychiatry requires doctors to relate to patients on a personal level. “It offers a much deeper connection to people and what’s meaningful to them than some other specialties.” 3. Psychiatrists are in demand. According to a 2016 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges, there is a severe shortage of psychiatrists in the U.S. The report showed that 2,800 additional psychiatrists are needed to fulfill the current level of demand for mental health services. Because of this national shortage, there are often more seats in psychiatry residency programs than there are applicants for those programs, except for elite psychiatry residency programs, Lieberman says. This means that a medical student who opts to specialize in psychiatry has a higher chance of matching with a residency program than if he or she chose a different specialty, he says. Another benefit of studying psychiatry during medical school and setting the stage for a psychiatry career, experts say, is that there are an abundant number of jobs in this field. "One pleasant surprise about psychiatry is that the job market is unbelievable," says Dr. Edward Zawadzki, a private practice psychiatrist in South Florida. "You can pick up and go anywhere in the country and get a respectable job." Source
