I'm four weeks into my first ever psychiatry run (my medical school requires us to do the run in 5th Year and again in 6th). To be completely honest, I was expecting to hate it. But then I started the run. Every day is different. The same patients are entirely different everyday. It's fascinating to listen to some of the delusions and hallucinations that people have, and to meet people with antisocial personality disorders or ?dissociative identity disorder. It's hard to imagine that the brain can almost work against its owner. It's crazy how many fucked up things you hear. But for the most part, the patients are lovely and they definitely keep you guessing. I enjoy the challenge of finding out what's true and what is part of the mental disorder.

Not only that, but the staff are lovely. My consultants/attendings are passionate about teaching and truly love their profession. The nurses are highly skilled and look out for the students a lot. If they see that you're enthusiastic, they'll go out of their way to contact you when there's something interesting going on.

I'm pretty sure the reason I find it so exciting is because I'm doing inpatient psych. There's a lot of acute florid psychosis, forensic issues, and substance use at our hospital. All the other students on inpatient are loving it, though some of my peers in community psychiatry are having less fun. Each run is what you make of it though - I find that if you're enthusiastic, it's easier for you to find that thing in each run that ignites your passion. This is coming from someone who was pretty sure they were going into surgery. Now I'm not so sure!