A Day in the Life of a Psychiatry Resident
It’s 5:15 a.m. when the first alarm goes off. I creep around the house getting ready for the gym and gathering my belongings for the workday ahead. I try hard not to wake the double-digit debater sleeping in his bunk bed. That’s a reference for my exuberant 10-year-old son. After three years of residency, we’ve got our daily rhythm down, but he never likes to see me go.
It’s July 1, the beginning of another academic year. This one will be my last. Looking back at all that I’ve gained from this program and the memories made, I can’t help but feel a little sentimental and apprehensive for the steps ahead. It’s my first day as a PGY4 and a chief resident.
7 a.m.: First stop, the inpatient psychiatric unit at the VA to help the new interns with their interview skills, documentation, and of course, moral support. Nursing report – check. Now we round. Psychiatry is a completely different world from the surrounding units. Our patients aren’t lying in bed hooked to an IV. Some are in group or music therapy while others wander the halls by themselves, but they’re not alone. I look over at my interns. They look fresh and eager to begin this journey. I don’t know if they can tell, but I feel a familiar fervor watching as they perform their first Ativan challenge on a patient with suspected catatonia.
Rounds are finished around 10 a.m. Now to help them with the Seal Team 6 task of completing discharges, orders, and pending consults before I head to the clinic to see my own patients.
At 1:15 p.m. I’m ready to see patients in the HIV psychiatric clinic where you can truly see a collaborative approach that bridges primary care, pecial Immunology, and other community resources such as the needle exchange program for underserved people living with HIV.
It’s 4:30 p.m. and clinic is finished. I’m staying late because my last patient of the day is recently homeless and I’m coordinating with members on our team to see what can be done so she doesn’t have to walk the streets or worry for her personal safety sleeping outside tonight. I text my co-rezzies in our group chat for support and guidance… also a place where we can share funny memes others outside of our profession won’t get.
The cool thing about 4th year is we revisit rotations we previously completed as interns, but I definitely don’t miss being on call. One thing I’m looking forward to after a full year of outpatient psychiatry is being back in crisis, our psychiatric ER. It’s a roll of the dice whether the day will be slow-paced or whether I’ll face three Baker-Acted patients actively psychotic and agitated or bipolar, acutely manic, and offering to take you to California on their private jet with Snoop Dogg.
It’s 5:40 p.m. when I walk in the door. I hang the white coat on the coat rack and put the mom hat on. Got to get dinner on the stove and catch up on all the new baby shark trap remixes. I remember when I was in medical school and my son told me “mommy, I don’t want you to be a doctor, I want you to be my mom”. Now he says, “Mom, I’m going to be a brain doctor like you.” Thinking of how far we have come, I’ll attest that it’s not easy training, but the gratification that comes with the difference you make personally and professionally every day makes it all worth it.
Kristi Wintermeyer is the Psychiatry Chief Resident, 2020-21