physchiatrist

Hi Areana,

The road to becoming a licensed psychiatrist is long one, but if you love the field and want to help people with mental ailments, it is well worth the time and effort needed. First off, you must have your bachelor’s degree. Some students choose to major in psychology, but there are many other social sciences or life sciences that will be equally useful. You could do sociology or health science if you are more interested in the “people” aspect, or you can go into physiology or biology if you are into the medical aspect. However, no matter which one you choose, it is important to get some pre-med experience throughout your journey. Once you are prepared, you can take your MCATs in order to apply for medical school once you obtain your undergraduate degree.

Upon entering medical school, you can expect to find a similar environment from your undergraduate experience - basically just taking science classes in order to expand your knowledge in the field of medicine. However, after two years, you can expect to start shadowing doctors, psychiatrists, or other health care professionals in order to finish your medical school training. This second part of medical school is called rotations. All in all, you can expect medical school to last four years. Before graduating, you will need to apply for residency in some psychiatric facility in order to finalize your psychiatrist licensing.

Your residency will take you an extra four years but will develop your skills using on-the-job training. You will work with mentors and other residents in rotations in order to get hands on experience in all fields of psychiatry, including research and diagnosis. You will also receive clinical training in order to further expand your knowledge of psychiatric medical treatments. Overall, your time in your residency should be a rewarding and enriching experience, if you take it in the right place. Choosing the perfect place to do your residency is another topic of its own, and should be thoroughly researched before committing to one.

Finally, after you go through your undergraduate program, medical school, and residency, you must pass your state’s board exam in order to be licensed. From there you can become certified with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and get started with helping people get their lives in order.

What is being a psychiatrist like at medical center?
If you want to be a psychiatrist at a private practice, then your days are very much like that of a psychologist or a private doctor — it will be a lot of one-on-one interaction with your clients and you will go home in the afternoon. But if you want to practice psychiatry at a medical center or hospital, here is what you should expect:

As a psychiatrist at a medical center or hospital, you can expect to start your days at any given time depending on your rotation. On your shifts, you will have your interns going over the events of the previous shift to catch you up (this is something you should be familiar with my now since you went through your residency). From there, you pick and choose between all the patients, deciding which ones need to stay and get inpatient care, and which ones just need to go home with a prescription. Some may just need a follow up with a different specialist, such as a neurologist.

Your days will be filled with listening to the interpretations of patient stories through the mouths of your interns - in some cases you will listen to the patients if the interns have trouble finding a trigger for a psychiatric break, but know there is something wrong with the patient. During this time, you will also be responsible for training the interns by questioning everything they do, and explaining anything that you do.

As a psychiatrist you will be learning, studying, diagnosing, and treating mental disorders from a medical standpoint in order to enrich the lives of your patients. If that sounds like you, then psychiatry is your calling.

Salary
The median annual psychiatrist salary, which is defined as the amount where the same number of psychiatrists earn less than that amount and the same number earn more, is $173,330. The top 10% of psychiatrists earn over $187,199; the lowest 10% earn $70,920.

In: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/felix-tarcomnicu/the-things-you-should-kno_b_3811957.html
http://www.wikiprofessional.org/Psychiatrist_Salary

Good luck!