Overview
Successful Psychiatric Practice: Current Dilemmas, Choices, and Solutions explores the current difficulties in maintaining a successful psychiatric practice. Issues include increasing third-party oversight, reduced reimbursement, increased administrative burdens, competition from nonmedical mental health practitioners, and the rapidly expanding knowledge base. This book presents first-person accounts of psychiatrists who have maintained successful and rewarding practices in the face of changing conditions and difficulties. Medical students contemplating careers in psychiatry, residents preparing to enter psychiatric practice, and psychiatrists considering changing their present mode of work will find this book extremely helpful.
The authors describe general psychiatric practice in urban, small-city, and rural settings. They also depict solo practice, partnerships, group practice in an HMO, and hospital-staff practice. Chapters focus on subspecialty practices of child psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychopharmacology, consultation-liaison psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. The authors discuss changes, dilemmas, and trends in psychiatric practice and their experiences and recommendations.
American Psychiatric Publishing
The book contains no figures.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Jeffrey S. Ross, MD(Rush University Medical Center)Description: This is the first edition of its kind in a clinical practice series aimed at mental health practitioners. This book focuses on the varied choices and dilemmas that must be considered in developing a career path in psychiatry. It compiles individual personal experiences.
Purpose: The purpose is to explore via personal accounts of representative psychiatrists how successful psychiatric practices are chosen, developed, and maintained. Although somewhat handy as a single source, much of this information should have been previously gleaned from a diversified four-year residency program, professional dealings with psychiatric colleagues and mentors, and periodic review of psychiatric newspapers.
Audience: The book is targeted toward the senior psychiatric resident or practicing clinician who is contemplating a career change within psychiatry. The representative authors are credible authorities by virtue of their chosen career paths. However, it seems implausible to expect the readers' individual experiences to be identical, especially considering geographical variables and the rapidly changing circumstances of psychiatry.
Features: Because this book is based on personal accounts, there are very few references and virtually no illustrations. The references that are cited generally cluster in the early 1990s, raising the predicament of obsolescence with this constantly evolving topic. The index is well organized, but naturally cannot include every pertinent individual issue. The book appears compact and can easily be read in one afternoon. The paucity of technical information does not seem to justify the relatively steep list price.
Assessment: The book is a worthwhile purchase for the psychiatrist who is considering a career change within psychiatry, but who feels geographically cut off from more experienced colleagues or a diversified psychiatric hospital or training center. However, for many senior residents, this knowledge has already been gained from personal experience within the residency, discussions with supervisors, local seminars, and psychiatric newspapers. The need to stay abreast of the rapidly changing times is vital, though a textbook may not be the best approach.
Jeffrey S. Ross
This is the first edition of its kind in a clinical practice series aimed at mental health practitioners. This book focuses on the varied choices and dilemmas that must be considered in developing a career path in psychiatry. It compiles individual personal experiences. The purpose is to explore via personal accounts of representative psychiatrists how successful psychiatric practices are chosen, developed, and maintained. Although somewhat handy as a single source, much of this information should have been previously gleaned from a diversified four-year residency program, professional dealings with psychiatric colleagues and mentors, and periodic review of psychiatric newspapers. The book is targeted toward the senior psychiatric resident or practicing clinician who is contemplating a career change within psychiatry. The representative authors are credible authorities by virtue of their chosen career paths. However, it seems implausible to expect the readers' individual experiences to be identical, especially considering geographical variables and the rapidly changing circumstances of psychiatry. Because this book is based on personal accounts, there are very few references and virtually no illustrations. The references that are cited generally cluster in the early 1990s, raising the predicament of obsolescence with this constantly evolving topic. The index is well organized, but naturally cannot include every pertinent individual issue. The book appears compact and can easily be read in one afternoon. The paucity of technical information does not seem to justify the relatively steep list price. The book is a worthwhile purchase for the psychiatrist who is considering a career changewithin psychiatry, but who feels geographically cut off from more experienced colleagues or a diversified psychiatric hospital or training center. However, for many senior residents, this knowledge has already been gained from personal experience within the residency, discussions with supervisors, local seminars, and psychiatric newspapers. The need to stay abreast of the rapidly changing times is vital, though a textbook may not be the best approach.Booknews
Fourteen essays provide first-person accounts by psychiatrists describing a range of practice environments including urban, small-city, and rural practices; practice in a staff-model HMO and a hospital; and geriatric and addiction psychiatry practices. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)2 Stars from Doody