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MRT6211 · Dec 23, 2018 at 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chihirochild

I have a small conundrum and would appreciate any thoughts or advice y'all might have. I'll be working at a different hospital for the next two weeks. Part of the purpose is educational (for me to learn how other specialties at other hospitals function), but another purpose is for them to check me out and decide whether or not they might be interested in hiring me or offering me a fellowship spot once I'm done with residency.

The conundrum is that normally I have to miss several hours of work on Friday afternoons in order to go to therapy (~3.5 hours--one hour of therapy, one hour of group, and 45 minutes drive time each way). I'm afraid that if I tell them I have depression, they won't want to hire me (because of stigma, and because me having to go to therapy every week is kind of a scheduling nightmare for hospitals/doctors). However, I don't want to misrepresent myself, and I don't want to contribute to stigma of mental illness in medicine by not disclosing, and I think that acting ashamed of a thing usually makes any existing shame worse... plus if they're the sort of workplace that won't take me because I have depression, I may not want to work for them anyway.

As far as I can tell, my options are:
- not go either week, which would be stupid
- go one week but not the other to minimize impact, which would be less stupid
- go both weeks
- go one or both weeks and not explain why ("I have a medical appointment")
- go one or both weeks and explain why ("I've got depression and have a therapy appointment")

Thoughts? Perspectives? Stories?

For me personally, I would go with telling them you have an appointment and not disclosing why. You don’t owe them any explanation, just as with any physical heath issue, you wouldn’t.
Also, I’m only a med student, so you’re further along in your career than I am, but in my experience, the stigma within the medical field against mental illness is astounding. I was open with my med school administration, and it very nearly cost me my career. I had to fight so hard to get back into school, and I have to unnecessarily repeat MS1. You might have an even better idea of this than I do, but that’s just my two cents. Given, I feel that the level of stigma probably also varies based on the people, hospital, specialty...really everything. So you’re the one who can best judge. I just advise caution, based on what I’ve seen and heard happening at my hospital.