Solano County Psych

[Erik Kofler]

Has anyone had psychiatry at the Solano County Clinic? 

Anything we need to do prior? I heard rumors about a fingerprint and background check. 

Hours? 

Holidays off? 

Thanks,

Erik 

[Diane Gaydos]

Yes, you need to be fingerprinted before you start. Hours were generally M-F 8:30-5. MWF we had didactics in Vallejo with Dr. Malouf from 7:30-8:30. It's an outpatient clinic so I'm sure you'd be closed on any major holidays.

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[Brian Luellen]

How did you like the rotation, Diane?  I've heard some bad reviews.

[Diane Gaydos]

I thought the rotation was fine. The clinic itself was very unorganized and poorly run, but the staff and psychiatrists were all very nice and helpful. And we were able to use the disorganization to our advantage when we felt like it.

We were with a different psychiatrist every day which was both good and bad. We didn't get to develop too much of a rapport with any one doc but we got to know all of them superficially and saw plentiful different ways to interview and treat patients. I came away from the rotation feeling comfortable with a psychiatric interview and all the different meds, their uses, and side effects, which I have found extremely useful on my current rotation which is outpatient IM. The doc I'm with right now has seemed impressed by my comfort with some very strong drugs that a lot of primary care docs feel uncomfortable with.

At least when I was there in August, the docs weren't used to teaching yet. They've never dealt with students and didn't entirely know what to do with us. What I found to be helpful in the beginning of the rotation was to sit quietly and observe the psychiatrist interviewing the patient, then when the psychiatrist was finished and turned to the computer to prescribe drugs, I would start asking the patients some follow up questions. The docs seemed to like this and after a while they started letting me conduct the interviews myself and they would intervene when necessary or appropriate. 

The negative aspect of this rotation was the weird schedule. They wanted us to be with psychiatrists for half our time and with the other office staff the other half so we could see the whole picture and how the clinic ran. For me, the time spent with the psychiatrists and social workers was the most useful and the time with the MAs and nurse was less useful. I don't feel as a 3rd year medical student that I need to sit there and watch someone give a shot unless they're going to let me do it myself on the next patient. And I even more don't need to sit and listen to the MAs make phone calls for appointment reminders. 

This is where the disorganization of the clinic as a whole came in handy. No one knew the schedule or who we were supposed to be with unless we told them. So if we were scheduled with someone and thought it would be a complete waste of time, I would either find someone more useful to follow that day, or hide in an office for a few hours to study for the COMAT or prepare for a presentation. No one seemed to notice or mind as long as we looked busy and like we were doing something useful. 

So hope that helps. Like any other rotation, it is what you make of it. Even if you don't want to be a psychiatrist, you will always have psych patients in whatever field you're in so it's good to start getting familiar with it as best you can. Let me know if anyone has any other questions. Wow, that was long, I didn't know I had that much to say about that topic...