Greyson Hunsaker

May 21st , 2020

Career in Psychiatry Research

The Career 

The career I have chosen to research is Psychiatry. The dictionary defines Psychiatry as

"The study and treatment of mental illness, emotional disturbance, and abnormal behavior."

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in mental health, psychological problems, and

physical problems. There are a few reasons why I chose this career to research, the main one

being it's the career I hope to end up in. Three other reasons have led me to want to pursue this

career and why I chose to research it. The first reason if my grandpa, he was a psychiatrist for the

U.S. Army and spent many years out of the country helping people all around the world that

were in active duty. I never met my grandpa but have heard many stories about his time that have

influenced me to want to follow in his footsteps. The second reason is because of my homeroom

teacher during high school. My homeroom teacher was the AP psychology teacher and would

always come into homeroom and tell us about what he was teaching that day. I was always so

interested in what he was teaching. He would also come in and test out experiments on us, which

I always found cool. This led me to take AP Psychology myself and help me fall in love with the

field. The third reason is because of my friend Brandon Lin. When I was in middle school, I met

a good friend named Brandon Lin. Brandon was such a cheerful, fun, and kind guy, but behind

everything, he was struggling with mental illness. This led him to take his own life in our

freshman year of high school. Since then, I've always been the first to help my friends with any

of their problems and want to continue to help people, especially younger kids, with their

problems and mental illnesses so that I can hopefully stop this from happening to anyone else.

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Job Description/Duties

           As stated above, Psychiatrists specialize in mental health, psychological problems, and

physical problems. They study patients' mental illnesses and behavior and work to find a

treatment. There are many things a psychiatrist does, from diagnosis to treatment to preventing

disorders and illnesses of the mind. While many see Therapists and Psychiatrists as the same

thing, there are a few key differences to the two careers. While both perform clinical work and

often spend time one on one with patients to help diagnose them, Psychiatrists are medically

trained doctors, whereas Therapists are not. Psychiatrists, because of this, have the ability to

prescribe medicine. This means that Psychiatrists are officially diagnosing what is behind

people's struggles, then offering individualized treatment plans, which often (but not always)

include medication. 

           A Psychiatrist has many duties that he/she does on a regular basis. A big part of a

Psychiatrist's job is assisting and caring for others—psychiatrists counsel outpatients and other

patients during office visits. Part of counseling patients is gathering information by either

observing a patient, receiving information about a patient, or otherwise gathering information.

With this information from things such as tests or examinations, the Psychiatrist's job is to

analyze and evaluate the patient's data to diagnose the nature and severity of the mental disorder. 

           Once a Psychiatrist has collected and analyzed data, it is their job to design and create

individualized care plans for patients, using a variety of treatments. As part of treatments, they

prescribe medicine to patients, direct patients to places for further help, and administer

psychotherapeutic treatments or medications to treat disorders. Once a treatment plan is

designed, it is part of a Psychiatrist's job to advise and inform guardians, relatives, and

significant others of patients' conditions and treatment.

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Required Education

           There are many education requirements that a person needs to finish and obtain to become

a Psychiatrist. This starts with an undergraduate degree. When in your undergraduate, a person

who wants to become a Psychiatrist can choose to major in any field as long as they take enough

pre-medical classes. This means that you don't need to major in Psychology, Chemistry, Biology,

or any other medical field to pursue medical school, although many pre-medical students choose

to major in Chemistry or Biology. 

           After achieving your undergraduate degree, the next part of your required education is

medical school. To apply to medical school, you need to take the Medical College Admission

Test (MCAT). The MCAT is a 7.5-hour test that covers everything medical; this includes

Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Psychology, etc. The MCAT total score is 472-528, with 500 being

the average. Getting a high score on the MCAT will give you the best chance of getting into

medical school. Once in medical school, a person spends four years learning the basics subjects

needed for a career as a doctor. These four years lead to a person earning a Doctor of Medicine

(M.D.) Degree which is needed to become a Psychiatrist. 

           After all the schooling required comes a psychiatric residency. After medical school,

people hoping to become a psychiatrist must spend four years doing a psychiatric residency, of

which at least three years are spent in psychiatry. During the first year of a residency, the

resident would spend at least four months in general medical care, internal medicine, family

medicine or pediatrics, and at least two months in neurology.

Income

The typical Psychiatrist in the United States makes an average of $228,096 a year. The range of

salaries as a Psychiatrist in the U.S. is between $182,812 and about $300,000 a year. Salaries

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differentiate between states with New York having the highest average salary of $292,286 a year,

whereas North Carolina has the lowest average salary of $214,363 a year.

Typical Day

           The typical day of a Psychiatrist differs from hospital to hospital or center to center as

well as from Psychiatrists to Psychiatrists. Still, there are a few things that most Psychiatrists do

on a day to day basis. The average Psychiatrist spends a day work doing things such as

administration, teaching, consultation, and research. The average Psychiatrist does a few things

every day. Those things are Patient Rounds, Patient Assessments, and Treatment. 

           Psychiatrists usually start the day with patient rounds. This involves checking on every

patient making adjustments to medications and treatments as necessary. Rounds also include

talking to patients, discussing any problems that may have occurred during the off-hours. Next,

in a typical day is patient assessments. Psychiatrist's days are usually filled with individual

patient appointments. In these appointments, the Psychiatrist will perform an assessment and

psychiatric evaluation of the patient. This includes discussing with the patient their presenting

problem or what lead them to seek help. Based on the assessment and evaluation done by the

Psychiatrist, they will provide a diagnosis and recommend a course of treatment. Finally comes

treatments. A large part of a psychiatrist's day involves treating patients. This includes

specialized treatment, prescribing medicine, and other types of treatment, such as therapy. 

Pros and Cons

There are many pros to being a Psychiatrist. Two of the biggest pros of being a

psychiatrist are the rapidly growing job market and the high earning potential of a psychiatrist.

Fortunately for those wanting to be Psychiatrists, the job market is growing very quickly. The

job market for psychiatrists is growing faster than average job growth. Unfortunately, this is

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because of the increase of mental illness around the world. The second pro is a high earning

potential. As stated above, the average Psychiatrist earns, on average, $228,096 a year. 

Unfortunately, with all things come cons, two of the biggest in psychiatry being the long

and competitive education required and the cost of that education. Psychiatrists are medical

doctors, so on top of a 4-year undergraduate degree, they require four years of medical school

and a four-year residency, which is 12 years of school and training. The second con going along

with all this school is the cost. On top of tuition for college doing your undergrad, you need four

years at medical school where the average tuition is between about $40,000 to $70,000

depending on where you go. 

Hours

A psychiatrist's hours depend on if they have their own private practice or not. If you

have your own private practice, then you decide your own hours and schedule. The average

Psychiatrist spends approximately 48 hours each week at work, with, on average, 60% of their

time with patients.

Work Environment

           A psychiatrist can work in many different work environments; this includes private

practices, hospitals, prisons, rehabilitation centers, etc. The environment is very interpersonal

with the Psychiatrist working closely with patients and other health care providers. Psychiatrists

can often be exposed to diseases, illnesses, or infections from patients. Because they work with

patients who could have mental illness or other diseases, the environment can sometimes get

very hostile. Psychiatrists often deal with patients that could be unpleasant or angry or in conflict

situations with patients. 

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           The environment a psychiatrist works in is also very serious and repetitive. The

environment is very serious because their work must be exact because of errors or mistakes and

endanger the health and safety of patients. It is also a very competitive environment, so mistakes

can lead to workers losing their jobs. Psychiatrists also make decisions daily that affect patients,

so they need to be very sure and exact with their decisions. 

Future of Career

The future of a job in psychiatry is very promising. As stated above, the demand for

psychiatry practitioners is growing with jobs in psychiatry growing at a faster than average rate.

As the demand for psychiatrists grows, so does the money in the job; the higher the demand, the

high salaries there will be. The market for psychiatry is steadily growing and probably will be for

a long time. 

A person who has a job in psychiatry will probably have a stable job for a long time to

come. Unfortunately, year by year, more and more mental illnesses are being discovered, and

more people are getting these illnesses. This leads to the need for Psychiatrists to grow and

psychiatrist's jobs to be pretty stable. Also, the money being earned by people in this profession

leads them to have a lot of money to keep them stable for a long time.  

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References

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https://job-descriptions.careerplanner.com/Psychiatrists.cfm

Lillian Stone. (2019, September 23). The Pros and Cons of Becoming a Psychiatrist (How Does

That Make You Feel?). Retrieved from https://www.noodle.com/articles/the-pros-and-

cons-of-becoming-a-psychiatrist-how-does-that-make-you-feel

Miller, A. (2018, July 24). The Basic Day-to-Day Schedule for a Psychiatrist. Retrieved May 21,

2020, from https://work.chron.com/basic-daytoday-schedule-psychiatrist-24456.html

Oxford. (n.d.). Psychiatry: Definition of Psychiatry by Lexico. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/psychiatry

Salary.com. (2020, April 27). Psychiatrist Salary. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from

https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/psychiatrist-salary

Shemmassian, S. (2018, December 3). Tuition at Every Medical School in the United States

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https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com/blog/medical-school-tuition

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Retrieved May 21, 2020, from

https://study.com/articles/Psychiatrist_Educational_Requirements_for_Psychiatrists.html

What Do Psychiatrists Do (including Their Typical Day At Work). (2020, April 28). Retrieved

May 21, 2020, from https://www.owlguru.com/career/psychiatrists/job-description/