Help - psychology vs medicine ??

Hi everyone

I have done a BSc Psychology undergraduate course and I have just finished my last year. I started to think about of any possible careers and I have always had a passion for medicine. The Graduate Entry in Medicine seems promising but there are a couple of factors to consider as well. I enjoy working along side people, and that's one of the reasons why I studied psychology apart from other things. I enjoy having to watch all the steps and progress of clients and see the help you give each step. But I don't like the full close relationship with the client and that's why I started to think of combining psychology with medicine and trying to find a career that does not require full close relationship with the client and just a few minutes contact with the client where you cannot see the progress of your help.

Sorry, it may sound confusing!! I am really struggling to find a career that is in between and is both psychological and medical . I was interested in psychiatry but it takes a lot of years to become one and clinical psychology was not recommended due to the high number of people applying to it.

So... if anyone can help, it would be absolutely useful!!

Thanks a lot

As Ronove said, specialty training always takes a long time; in fact, Psychiatry has one of the shortest training programmes of all the specialties. Also, your post was a bit confusing, but if you want a career where you don't really have to have much of a relationship with your patients, Psychiatry is almost definitely not for you. There are other medical fields where the time you spend with patients is shorter, so I wouldn't say to avoid Medicine altogether - just think about a different area maybe.

Hi everyone

I have done a BSc Psychology undergraduate course and I have just finished my last year. I started to think about of any possible careers and I have always had a passion for medicine. The Graduate Entry in Medicine seems promising but there are a couple of factors to consider as well. I enjoy working along side people, and that's one of the reasons why I studied psychology apart from other things. I enjoy having to watch all the steps and progress of clients and see the help you give each step. But I don't like the full close relationship with the client and that's why I started to think of combining psychology with medicine and trying to find a career that does not require full close relationship with the client and just a few minutes contact with the client where you cannot see the progress of your help.

Sorry, it may sound confusing!! I am really struggling to find a career that is in between and is both psychological and medical . I was interested in psychiatry but it takes a lot of years to become one and clinical psychology was not recommended due to the high number of people applying to it.

So... if anyone can help, it would be absolutely useful!!

Thanks a lot

What about clinical psychology?

Clinical psychology is very hard to get in to . There are loads of people applying to this area and it's highly competitive.

Hahaha more than medical school? Or worse graduate medicine (60:1 usually)

haha? and more

Thank you for your answer! Sorry to make my situation a bit confusing haha! It is very hard sometimes to explain. Well, what I'm trying to look for is a career combining both psychology and medicine. So I want something that will have close relationships with clients but not as short as a GP would for example have. I hope this clears it a little!

Hahaha more than medical school? Or worse graduate medicine (60:1 usually)

You're welcome. So you want something where you see patients for longer than 10 minutes, but you also don't want a 'close relationship' with them? If that's the case, I still think psychiatry probably won't be for you; psychiatric consultations tend to be some of the longest of any specialty (at least an hour in the majority of cases) - but I presume you know this, since clinical psychologists' appointments are often that long too. Most medical and surgical specialties have a degree of patient continuity, and most have clinic appointments longer than 10 minutes (when you get to consultant level, at least) - so there are jobs within Medicine that answer your criteria, if that helps.

Hmm, I see. The thing that attracts me with psychiatry is that it is medically based too. But apart from that, I would like to choose a career that is more clinical rather than theoretical and this is what I'm trying to search. Clinical psychology is really tough to get into and am trying to search for alternatives, which is tough ! And yeah, psychiatry can take a very long time to actually become one .

Psychiatry has one of the shortest training programmes of all the specialties

I'll just requote *pitseleh* here:



https://www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk/specialty_pages/psychiatry/general_adult_psychiatry/postgraduate_training_pathway.aspx

You can see training pathways for the different specialties via this link. Everything except GP seems to be 6-8.5 years before you're fully specialised. Psych is 6. Presumably you would basically be working as a psychiatrist for at least half of those years as well, just in a more junior role. (Disclaimer: haven't looked into it that much but it's the only thing that would make sense to me).

You could always do lots of these things without any medicine. Like Psychotherapy this link says you just need a masters which would presumably be just 1 more year:
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/psychotherapist_entry_requirements.htm

Or you could do counselling of some kind. I think your idea of not having full contact with a patient is kind of confusing, especially because psychological interventions are kind of all about that - virtually none of them are quick fixes. Quickest I can think of with highest turnover and least actual close contact is probably running group CBT sessions or something. I don't know what kind of qualification you'd need to deliver those, but I know lots of drug and alcohol services have group CBT.

Hmm, I see. The thing that attracts me with psychiatry is that it is medically based too. But apart from that, I would like to choose a career that is more clinical rather than theoretical and this is what I'm trying to search. Clinical psychology is really tough to get into and am trying to search for alternatives, which is tough ! And yeah, psychiatry can take a very long time to actually become one .

I have taken a look at the link. Surprisingly, it seems so. But since I have just an undergraduate degree in Psychology, i need to take the GEM which is 4 years + another 6 years of training for psychiatry. I was also looking that if I choose the psychiatric route, I would go for the medical psychotherapy (I think it's called) where a psychiatrist specialises in psychotherapy - which would take a while.

Yup, I know how long it takes to become a psychiatrist; it's what I'm aiming to go into. I think you maybe seem a little bit confused about what you want - lots of the things you want seem to contradict each other..?



From the way you describe the length of time required to become a psychiatrist, it sounds like you don't realise that every medical specialty takes a long time to specialise in. But, as I and others have mentioned, psych still has one of the shortest programmes.

Psychotherapy tends to be carried out by therapists rather than psychiatrists, so if you think that might be your goal, it doesn't make much sense to go down the medical route.

The thing is, with most of the options you've suggested it will take a while before you're qualified. Is there any particular reason that the extra time would be an issue for you? Because a long training pathway is what you sign up for in a lot of healthcare professions - especially if you start as a graduate, as lots of us do - that's just the way of it. Though it is also important to remember that if you do go down the medical route, it's only four or five years until you qualify as a doctor and start earning money. What comes after is more like studying on the job, as it were.

Thanks for replying! . To be quite honest with you I am really confused in terms of my career . That's why I keep shifting from medicine to psychology and it is really tough to come up with a decision.

The length of study for psychiatry put me off because I'm in my early 20s now and I cannot afford to go for GEM right now and by the time I start it would be quite late. And I am still not sure whether I would like to have that much length of studying yet. It is definitely not out of the question, but still considering different things. I am still trying to find a common ground between a practical and theoretical career. I am quite a practical person, but not fully. That's why I'm trying to find something in between. I know that I'd be bored in a fully theoretical based career. Psychology opens up in so many different areas, which makes it more difficult to find something like that!

But I don't like the full close relationship with the client and that's why I started to think of combining psychology with medicine and trying to find a career that does not require full close relationship with the client and just a few minutes contact with the client where you cannot see the progress of your help.