Can you become a psychiatrist when doing psychology as your undergrad?
Hi, i live in Scotland and i have always planned on becoming a clinical psychologist. However recently i have started getting into the more medical side and have decided i want to become a pychiatrist instead. I am not interested in taking medicine as my undergrad nor do i have the grades for it, but my research has shown that it might be the only way. i really love psychology and want to take it as an undergraduate and i have heard that as long as you get your masters in something( i cant remember) then go to medical school it would be okay. i really have my heart set on psychiatry and hope that it will be okay to go forward with it.
(edited 10 months ago)
Original post by b123f456
Hi, i live in Scotland and i have always planned on becoming a clinical psychologist. However recently i have started getting into the more medical side and have decided i want to become a pychiatrist instead. I am not interested in taking medicine as my undergrad nor do i have the grades for it, but my research has shown that it might be the only way. i really love psychology and want to take it as an undergraduate and i have heard that as long as you get your masters in something( i cant remember) then go to medical school it would be okay. i really have my heart set on psychiatry and hope that it will be okay to go forward with it.
The "then go to medical school" part of your question suggests that you're talking about Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM). That being the case, I've moved you thread into the Medicine forum, because medicine is quite a specialist area in terms of giving appropriate advice. I hope that's OK.
The only way to become a psychiatrist is to do a medical degree, the usual two years as a Foundation doctor, and then psychiatry specialty training.
An undergraduate degree in psychology does not provide any shortcuts and would add nothing to your application. It's an interesting subject, but most of the material you study at undergrad level will not be clinically relevant. Graduate entry medicine courses exist (I'm on one) but these are even more competitive than standard entry medicine and they require higher scores on the admissions tests. If you want to do medicine, the best and simplest way is to retake A-levels and apply to courses that allow resits.
Remember that psychiatry is a tiny portion of an incredibly broad degree, so you need to be confident that you would enjoy that breadth. If you're not keen on that or you don't think you could realistically get the grades in the required subjects, have you looked at things like mental health nursing, social work, or occupational therapy? These professions enable you to go on to do postgraduate training in a psychological therapy if that's what you're interested in. I've had several therapist colleagues who were RMNs, and who got salaried CBT training posts on the strength of that previous experience.
An undergraduate degree in psychology does not provide any shortcuts and would add nothing to your application. It's an interesting subject, but most of the material you study at undergrad level will not be clinically relevant. Graduate entry medicine courses exist (I'm on one) but these are even more competitive than standard entry medicine and they require higher scores on the admissions tests. If you want to do medicine, the best and simplest way is to retake A-levels and apply to courses that allow resits.
Remember that psychiatry is a tiny portion of an incredibly broad degree, so you need to be confident that you would enjoy that breadth. If you're not keen on that or you don't think you could realistically get the grades in the required subjects, have you looked at things like mental health nursing, social work, or occupational therapy? These professions enable you to go on to do postgraduate training in a psychological therapy if that's what you're interested in. I've had several therapist colleagues who were RMNs, and who got salaried CBT training posts on the strength of that previous experience.
As above, a psychology degree in itself does not qualify you to become a psychiatrist. You need to do a medical degree sooner or later as psychiatry is a medical specialty.
Original post by b123f456
Hi, i live in Scotland and i have always planned on becoming a clinical psychologist. However recently i have started getting into the more medical side and have decided i want to become a pychiatrist instead. I am not interested in taking medicine as my undergrad nor do i have the grades for it, but my research has shown that it might be the only way. i really love psychology and want to take it as an undergraduate and i have heard that as long as you get your masters in something( i cant remember) then go to medical school it would be okay. i really have my heart set on psychiatry and hope that it will be okay to go forward with it.
Psychiatry might not be for you then. You can't be a psychiatrist without knowing how to take a medical history, exclude organic/non-psychiatric conditions, consider medication side effects/interactions, check bloods, ECGs etc. There's no way to do this stuff competently without having sufficient experience in medicine as a general field.
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