Psychiatry = scalpel? Please help!?
I’ve read the steps to becoming a psychiatrist, but there’s something I really need cleared up.
See, I’m smart, but physically obtuse. Seriously, it’s like I have two left hands. I understand that to become a psychiatrist, I’d have to attend medical school, but I was wondering: would I have to actually do the hands-on work or if it would just be learning the intellectual ideas behind medicine?
Also, stemming off of that, do psychiatrists actually have to do the physical work of medicine, or is the career fully analytical?
EDIT:
By "physical work" I mean hands-on stuff, like taking blood, etc., not just diagnosing and prescribing. Studying brain chemicals and such is fine, I just am a very clumsy person and I know that nobody would be safe with me taking a knife or needle to them.
Sorry for the confusion. 
Hmm, well, just injections wouldn’t be too bad. Would it likely go further than that even in the educational process?
(Just in case anyone wondered…)
I know that I would be good in the field of psychology, but that career path is highly frowned upon my family; they consider it a dead-end job. While I’m only lightly considering either career, I wanted to know the point blank difference between psychology and psychiatry in whether or not I had the capabilities for both.
From what I looked up, the main difference was the prescribing of medication, and nobody mentioned whether or not psychiatrists needed to be able to perform surgeries and what not.
Thanks for the help. =)
Posted in psychiatry jobs
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February 11th, 2010 at 4:40 am
During medical school, you will have to rotate through surgery, but they won’t let you do anything important, so don’t sweat it.
As a shrink, you’ll make more money and have more respect than you will as a psychologist. The most hands-on thing you might have to do is electroshock therapy, and that’s pretty simple.
They have strong people available on psych wards for take-downs. You won’t have to wrestle much.
Nurses do most of the medication administration, anyway. You’ll just have to order it, and that involves only a chart and a pen.
Go for it, and good luck!
February 11th, 2010 at 4:40 am
No they have to do the physical work of medcine as they study the disturbed brain chemicals behind this weird behavior , they prescribe medications, and they might study neurology too,what u want to study is the" psychology"and "spirituality" which is really not very involved in medcine!
Freud was not a psychiatrist , he was a psychological
scientist !
Edit:
Yes there is physical work, if a patient developed an attack E.g manic attack , u will have to tie him and inject him with sedatives to calm him down!
u will deal also with injections in this field, and u will have to study the other medical branches too, as some diseases r associated with mental and psychiatric disorders…
February 11th, 2010 at 4:40 am
To become a psychiatrist, you still have to go thru internship and residency. You’ll get a taste of all fields of medicine, you’ll do surgical procedure, set broken bones, do internal examinations, things all doctors might be called on to do.
Just learning the intellectual ideas, hell, just surf WebMD enought and we can all do
that. But we’ll never be doctors.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:40 am
Maybe what you want to study is psychology instead of psychiatry.