Essay On Psychiatry Rotation

As we passed through the 4th security door at the state psychiatric inpatient facility, I saw many unknown faces staring at us. Caught completely unaware I became nervous and tired to hide behind other medical students. My first day of psychiatry rotation certainly didn’t go on expected lines. However the experience I had later in the rotation left a long lasting impression on me. My husband who was the witness to the transformation of ideas and thoughts during the clerkship, smiled approvingly when I told him that I wanted to be a psychiatrist.

After I became comfortable with the patients around me, I instinctively became curious to know more about them. There was this young man with bipolar and schizophrenia, who paced along the hallways all the time. He told me about how me how he came to Washington DC all the way from California to become president of USA. He had too many thoughts and flights of ideas. I understood how difficulty it was for him

Though as a medical student I studied about various mental disorders, knowing people with this disorder first hand deeply influenced me. On a personal note it reminded me of the stories my mother told me about my grandfather. He was suffering from severe depression and lack of timely intervention drove him to commit suicide.

I realized that mental health disorders are universal and rampant. It affects overall health of the patient and their families. I believe improving mental health improves health care of the society. There is no better field that psychiatry to improve mental health. I am also drawn to other uniqueness of psychiatry wherein a patient is evaluated mainly on his/her interaction with the physician with minimal assistance from radiology or labs investigation. So a lot depends upon the knowledge and skill of the physician in coming to logical conclusions while diagnosing the patient. I love the