For my first rotation I did psychiatry, at first, I was very nervous because this was my very first rotation and it was psychiatry so I did not really know what to expect regarding what I would have to do and what I might encounter. However, after the first day I became comfortable with my environment and the different patients. The staff created a safe and friendly environment while also making sure we learned about the cases we saw. I learned many different things while on this rotation one thing I learned would be how to get people to discuss things they are not really open to discuss. For example, there were plenty of times when we had to go see pediatric psych consults, and as we all know adolescents are not always the most forth coming with information. However, I learned that to get them to talk, you must work at their pace and try to relate to them therefore they do not see you as less of a clinician that is interrogating them and more as a friend.
Another thing I learned during this rotation in that same environment is how to speak with parents. When we had pediatric psych consults, I realized that before you try to make the patient comfortable first and foremost you need to make sure the parent is comfortable, involved, and aware of what is going on. Another thing I learned while on this rotation is how to deescalate patients when they get irritated. In CPEP there were many patients who were agitated and felt as if they were being held against their will, so they would often take that anger out on staff. Despite this I learned how to deal with patients in situations like this and still get an adequate evaluation from an interview when a patient is in that state through various techniques.
Lastly, I learned how to empathize with patient, in psych I saw a lot of patients who were victims of rape and abuse along with patients who attempted to kill themselves. When talking to patients who are going through things such as these it is important to have a sense of empathy and try to remove one’s own bias and thoughts out of the picture to adequately listen and understand the patient’s mindset. I believe that all these aspects that I learned during my psychiatric rotation will be useful to me as a future PA because they are all centered around building a safe and welcoming environment during the patient interview. This is crucial in practice because if the clinician does not create a welcoming environment the patient may refuse to talk or leave out information which can then have negative impacts on the efficacy of health that is delivered to said patient. I especially plan to use these techniques I learned on my psychiatric rotation in my next rotation which is pediatrics. I believe a lot of the interviewing techniques I learned in this rotation will be helpful for the next seeing that I will have to again interact with adolescents and their parents.
