I have been very fortunate to greatly enjoy all of my rotations so far, and my Psychiatry rotation was no different. From my background in my research lab during my undergraduate experience where one of my responsibilities was conducting the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), I found that Psychiatry was a specialty that always really interested me, particularly the psychiatric emergency setting. I was initially scheduled to rotate at QHC’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP), but with the pandemic and resulting changes in the rotation schedule I was rescheduled to an outpatient clinic. This clinic had not yet transitioned to face-to-face visits at the time of my rotation, however, so I was once again scheduled in QHC CPEP as a late addition, much to my excitement.

This rotation was very enlightening, as it was a completely different way of approaching patients that in all of my previous ones. In this case, the history and physical exam were replaced with the patient interview and mental status exam. Additionally, the patients I helped treat in CPEP most often had poor insight and judgment and could not express what the problem that led them to presenting in the unit was, as opposed to a patient in an urgent care, who presents to tell you exactly what their complaint is. In this way, I feel that my observation skills have greatly improved to figure out if a psychiatric patient appears internally preoccupied or if they are behaving in a disorganized and bizarre way, for example.

I enjoyed nearly every aspect about this rotation. First, it was nice to see a service that is largely run by PAs, with the majority being York PA Program alumni. Additionally, all the staff (physicians, PAs, and NPs) seemed to really enjoy having students around and were so willing to teach and bring us along to see cases and conduct interviews. Moreover, they were all really mindful of our safety and what we were comfortable with. I recall an instance where one of the PAs wanted to take me to see a consult in the medical emergency room for a patient who was brought in for homicidal ideations and she checked with me several times before we left CPEP and while we were on the walk to the medical emergency room to make sure I did not feel forced to see the patient if I felt unsafe.

In every rotation I want my preceptor and the staff to see that I am eager to learn and often make a habit of letting them know at the very beginning that I am willing to do anything and see anything, but I think that was even more pronounced for this rotation because it was of particular interest for me. I volunteered to see as many patients, asked questions when appropriate, and asked to write patient noted whenever possible to show the staff how much I wanted to learn. I think this translated well because the different providers quickly began asking me to come see patients with them and trusted me to see their assigned patients and medical emergency room consults on my own and write up a note.

I immensely enjoyed my experience in CPEP. I thought the environment was incredible and I really appreciated the staff and learned so much working with all of them. The experience as a whole solidified for me that I am actually interested in psychiatry and would love to work in this environment in the future as a clinician.