As I understand it a Psychiatrist is also an MD. So what kind of residency requirements does a Psychiatrist undergo? Do they do a couple of years in a hospital psych ward or what?
After completing medical school, the standard requirement is a four year residency, consisting of at least six months of general medicine (though most programs do a full year) and neurology, and the remainder in psychiatry, which has to involve specified minimal amounts of time in both outpatient and inpatient work, including some exposure to psychotherapy.
In my program, we did four months of medicine, two of neurology, a full year of inpatient psych work, then the last 2 1/2 years was half-time outpatient clinic and half time in various specialty settings. I think we were considerably above average in the amount of time we spent doing outpatient, though.
When you say six months to a year of general medicine what does that mean? Being a resident in a hospital? Can you describe what that entails in more detail please? Also the neurology portion.