I'm a post-foundation doctor trained in the UK. I'm moving to Switzerland to live with my partner. I'm just wondering whether there is anyone on this forum starting or in psychiatry training in Switzerland? I would appreciate your insight into the experience.
Post-foundation basically means I have full registration with the general medical council in UK and have completed foundation training.
I have basic knowledge about the process of application but I'm interested in finding out about individual stories and experience of doing psychiatry training, specifically, in Switzerland.
On of my friends has got unterassestant position in pschychitry hospital in canton of Luzern since just one month ago . He is non EU medical graduate, he is B1 german level, and not yet regestred in meebko. After an interview, he was told that could work for 6 months in this position. By the end of 6 months period if he has 1.good attitude 2.B2 German. 3. Regestration no. In meebko. They would offer an assistantartz position there. If he could not provide one of those conditions. They said that he could not proceed further.
What about working in psychiatry itself? It must be challenging in terms of communication skills... and what are the structures of the psychiatric hospitals?
OP is UK trained, which is automatically recognized (assuming UK hasn’t left the EU by the time the papers are submitted!)
But I can’t imagine being able to work effectively in psychiatry without decent DE/FR/IT. Surprised at the individual who got a role with B1 German to be honest - even the targeted B2 German would not be enough for effective communication.
In other specialities, language is less critical....pain is pain! But emotional descriptions are very different culturally and not words /meanings easily learned until language skills s are advanced.
Here, I refer you to dr r, he is already EF member and he already doing Unterassistenzarzt(internship) in psychiatry in canton of Solothurn. He is the OP of the link that i have mentioned before.
I'm also in the same situation. I'm a F1 doctor in the UK and would like to start psych training in switzerland (french side). Have you managed to get a post? I have French passport since I married a French citizen and I also speak French so I think I can easily pass B2, may need to work harder for C1. Would be good to know whether you managed to find a post and how was your experience?
Yes, as far as I know, this is exactly the route that drremobond007 took, and it worked. At the time, he had less going for him than you, since he was non-EU.
In fact, it was his struggle and his success in achieving just that, finding work, which motivated him to post such wonderfully detailed information of all the steps, in the hope of opening the way for other doctors, like yourself. Bonne chance!
Thank you for your response and encouragement! I'm particularly keen to know how it is for psych jobs, and also how it's the training like, especially compared to the UK. Are u training in psych? Do u know how heavy is the work load? What's the schedule like? How many night shifts and on-calls do trainees have? How much teaching do they have?
Okay. I think I was focused mainly on the part of your question that was about the training, which is done during those first working years, as he sets out.
Let's hope someone comes along to answer the other part about the working conditions and how it feels to work in a Swiss psychiatric clinic.
This much is almost certain: long working hours, large case load.
To provide a good service and to feel relaxed in yourself while so doing, you need a very good command of the local language, since it will be part of your duties - besides therapy with patients - to liaise with nurses, psychologists and with referring doctors, to discuss and possibly authorise medication (hence also to read up about same), to motivate for cover of treatment by insurances, and to read and to write complex medical reports, and so on.
I have never worked in psychiatry in Switzerland but all I have picked up is that they are always pretty desperate for staff to fill the many empty posts. I believe it’s an unpopular speciality due to the obvious and the low salary compared to other specialties. There must be many foreigners as the locals are keen to avoid it. Due to unfilled posts I can imagine the hours/shifts being long and plentiful. But on the bright side, they really need people as long as you can communicate reasonably in one of the local languages. And the law these days does limit working hours to average max at 50hrs/week although some sneaky clinics always find ways around this with ‘on call from home’ tricks. But many have been forced to stop these illegal practices so it is possible to find a fair place. Oh, and you will always have patients, there’s a world of borderline, bipolar and burnout waiting for you here :-)
Thanks everyone for the replies and information. Just for an update, I didn't end up working in Psychiatry because i find it impossible to make the most out of this specialty without a good grasp of the local language (swiss german). I don't want to be just prescribing drugs without truly understanding the patients. I ended up getting a job in neurorehabilitation and will be going down the neurology route, which I find equally interesting.
Why not psychotherapy. In Ch a doctor can work as a psychotherapist. If you do a Weiterbildung like the Jung Institute n Küsnacht, you can work in your own private practice. Jung Institute does supervision so you will learn a lot about psychotherapy.
Thats a good institution to contact for more questions. They know have also an ambulatorium.
They have both english and german program and in private practice you can work with patients in English. That if you are interested in psychotherapy.