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What kind of work do you do as a psychiatrist?

I am very curious of what is a typical day for you? How does your day start for you? What kind of hands on work do you do? Are you usually in a office type setting just talking ? Is there anything you didn't expect when you started working ?

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John’s Answer

Psychiatrists prescribe, direct, or administer psychotherapeutic treatments or medications to treat mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders. They also prescribe, direct, or administer psychotherapeutic treatments or medications to treat mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders.

Other tasks often include:

Gathering and maintaining patient information and records, including social or medical history obtained from patients, relatives, or other professionals.
Designing individualized care plans, using a variety of treatments.
Collaborating with physicians, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, or other professionals to discuss treatment plans and progress.
Analyzing and evaluating patient data or test findings to diagnose nature or extent of mental disorder(s).
Examining or conducting laboratory or diagnostic tests on patients to provide information on general physical condition or mental disorder(s).
Counselling outpatients or other patients during office visits.
Thank you comment icon Hi John! Thanks for this great info. There's some additional details in the question description the Student is looking for about what your average day is like as a psychiatrist. Check it out, and feel free to add some information to your answer if you are able. Thanks so much! Alexandra Carpenter, Admin
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Julie’s Answer

Psychiatrists can do many things! You can do research, you can work with people one on one in person or on-line, you can study various human trends and practices. You can be a counselor in many different fields. You do usually need to have more than a 4 year degree to actually be a Psychiatrist.
Thank you comment icon I am really grateful you took the time to answer this question. josie
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John’s Answer

I choose to go as far as a Masters in Psychology but came accross this choice when I was in the Masters program. Turns out that to be a Psychiatrist you need to go to Medical School first. That is usually 8 years of schooling. To be a psychologist you need to get a PHD (roughly 8 years) in Psychology. SO that is quite a difference in content. As a Psychiatrist you are trained first to be a doctor then in some states with only 15 additional units of Psychology you can apply for and get certified as a Psychiatrist. One of the things a Psychiatrist can do is perscribe drugs. A Psychologist can not. Typically the Pscyhologist is viewing patients through the lense of a doctor. A Psychologist has had 8 years of Psychology and usually sees the client through the lense of the type of Psychology that he or she has focused on in school. Their are choices short of a full PHD in Psychology. You can attain a Masters and then with a year of supervised counseling you can get certified as a Child Family Counselor. In my case, while on my path to Child Family Counselor I realized that although good at working with people I was not coming from an abundance of giving. I realized I soon woudl burn out. I swithched and went to HR and finally to complex sales profession. The skills were very useful and provided a great career path.
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