Las Vegas City Wire

A Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumna says the key to navigating the second year of a four-year residency in psychiatry is perspective.

Dr. Faun Botor, 35, works at Desert Willow Treatment Center, a psychiatric hospital for kids and teens and was a member of the school’s charter class, according to a press release from the university.

“I feel well prepared,” she said in the news release. “I think that by being part of the charter class we had to deal with a lot of unknowns. We learned to go with the flow and adjust, so we got used to adapting quickly to different sites and expectations and I think that helped a lot.”

The scope of her job brings her to the aid of young people who are a threat to themselves or others.

It’s a move up from her most recent jobs rotating night shifts at Rawson-Neal and Stein Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals.

“I would go to bed with a pager on my hip, answering calls from the nursing staff at Rawson-Neal as well as the Stein Forensic Hospital for psychiatric patients who are incarcerated," Botor said. "So essentially you’re on call for two separate hospitals, and you receive pages throughout the night from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. The calls can be as simple as someone is having a hard time sleeping to someone having acute psychotic agitation; maybe they are suicidal or homicidal … it could be any of those.”