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How to become Psychiatrist in 2024

Psychiatrist Diagnose, treat, and help prevent mental disorders.

Psychiatrist is Also Know as

In different settings, Psychiatrist is titled as

  • Adult Psychiatrist
  • Child Psychiatrist
  • Consulting Psychiatrist
  • Medical Doctor (MD)
  • Outpatient Psychiatrist
  • Prison Psychiatrist
  • Psychiatrist
  • Staff Psychiatrist

Education and Training of Psychiatrist

Psychiatrist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Psychiatrist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Psychiatrist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Psychiatrist

Training Required for Psychiatrist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Psychiatrist in different industries are

What Do Psychiatrist do?

  • Analyze and evaluate patient data or test findings to diagnose nature or extent of mental disorder.
  • Prescribe, direct, or administer psychotherapeutic treatments or medications to treat mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders.
  • Collaborate with physicians, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, or other professionals to discuss treatment plans and progress.
  • Gather and maintain patient information and records, including social or medical history obtained from patients, relatives, or other professionals.
  • Counsel outpatients or other patients during office visits.
  • Design individualized care plans, using a variety of treatments.
  • Examine or conduct laboratory or diagnostic tests on patients to provide information on general physical condition or mental disorder.
  • Advise or inform guardians, relatives, or significant others of patients' conditions or treatment.
  • Review and evaluate treatment procedures and outcomes of other psychiatrists or medical professionals.
  • Prepare and submit case reports or summaries to government or mental health agencies.
  • Serve on committees to promote or maintain community mental health services or delivery systems.
  • Teach, take continuing education classes, attend conferences or seminars, or conduct research and publish findings to increase understanding of mental, emotional, or behavioral states or disorders.

Qualities of Good Psychiatrist

  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.

Tools Used by Psychiatrist

  • Desktop computers
  • Electronic blood pressure units
  • Laptop computers
  • Manual blood pressure units
  • Mechanical stethoscopes
  • Personal computers
  • Personal digital assistants PDA
  • Tablet computers

Technology Skills required for Psychiatrist

  • ADL Data Systems OptimumClinicals Electronic Health Record
  • Advantage Software Psych Advantage
  • Allscripts Sunrise
  • Blumenthal Software PBSW24
  • Cerner ProFile
  • Computer Assisted Diagnostic Interview CADI software
  • eClinicalWorks EHR software
  • Electronic medical record EMR software
  • Epic EpicCare Inpatient Clinical System
  • Epic Systems
  • FifthWalk BillingTracker Pro
  • GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
  • ICANotes
  • Integrated Systems Management OmniMD
  • MDofficeManager MediVoxx
  • MEDITECH Behavioral Health Clinicals
  • MEDITECH software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Word
  • Netsmart Technologies Avatar Clinical Workstation CWS
  • Practice management software PMS
  • Psychiatric assessment software
  • Psychiatric information databases
  • Sigmund Software Sigmund Enterprise Management
  • SoftPsych Psychiatric Diagnosis
  • Texas Medical Software SpringCharts EMR
  • UnisonCare UniCharts
  • Virtual reality software
  • Web browser software