A Much Needed Break From Psychiatry

Two weeks into my Psych rotation and I am feeling DRAINED.

When I’ve explained how it’s draining to people, I’ve been able to summarise it like this:

My time in Respiratory during the first wave of COVID on that awful COVID rota was physically draining because of the long shifts. GP was more mentally draining- I had shorter days but was using my brain a lot more because of how much more independently I was working/reviewing patients on my own.

So far, my time as a Psychiatry SHO has been emotionally draining. I work in an acute psych unit, where we have a lot of acutely unwell patients with psychotic symptoms, so I’ve felt more on edge.

We were told in our induction to constantly be on our guard- we carry alarms all the time, are never to have our backs to patients, should always sit closer to the doors, and should always review patients with a chaperone. So it can get pretty intense!

I have an oncall shift once a week, which involves me being the only doctor around to cover the acute site, as well as the elderly psych and eating disorder units. As my oncall shifts vary between 16 and 24 hours in length, I live too far away to go home, so I stay in the doctors’ rest rooms provided for us:

Sooo nice! It really does feel like a hotel, haha.

Anyway, I’m off this weekend and Boss and I have recently gotten into making and decorating gingerbread men, so much fun!