Becoming A Psychiatrist

Many individuals are inspired to join the medical field because of the influences that others place on them. On the other hand, some join the field to become the inspiration that others may need. Gemaly, for example, has always wanted to inspire those around her. She has always wanted to make her parents proud and inspire her nephews. In order to do that, she decide to join the medical field and become a psychiatrist. Becoming a psychiatrist is a privileged and rewarding career. Psychiatrists are a type of doctor who diagnoses and treats mental illnesses. They can either work in hospitals or their own private practice. Psychiatrists always get mixed up with psychologists, but there is a difference. The primary difference between psychiatrists
First of all, becoming a psychiatrist requires many years of schooling. According to Study.com, future psychiatrists must earn a degree either in biology or psychology (“Psychiatrist”) These students are recommended to have a high GPA because the medical career is a competitive one. After completing their bachelor’s degree, the individual has to then take the MCAT, which is a test that is needed to take in order to enter medical school. Scoring a high grade on the MCAT will help in getting into a medical school. After completing these first two steps, aspiring psychiatrists are then required to complete four years of medical school. The website Learn How to Become, states that “The first few years focus on basic classes in pathology, anatomy, biology, and other science-related fields” (“How”). The last years of medical school then consist of training in the profession. After the students have completed medical school, they are required to take up a residency program. In this program, individuals are put under supervised training. During residency, the student may learn many more things that they wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. They are put under a licensed psychiatrist, who helps them put their skills to practice. Once they have completed their residency, these individuals must be licensed and board certified, which has to be renewed every ten years, in order to officially become
These skills will help the aspiring psychiatrist to be able to relate to his or her patient and to be able to work with them. One skill that all psychiatrists should have is being a good listener. As a psychiatrist, the individual will have to listen to their patient speak. They will have to be able to understand when it is their turn to talk and to sometimes just let their patient talk. If a psychiatrist wasn’t any good at listening then what is the point of them being there, the whole point of being a psychiatrist is to listen. Another skill that psychiatrists should have is to be a good observer. With observation, psychiatrists are to be able to detect their patient’s attitude and behavior. According to Jeffrey Joyner, psychiatrists should also have compassion, he states that in order to be an effective psychiatrist, the individual needs to understand that others face different types of problems and challenges. One last skill that would help psychiatrist is to have stress tolerance. In this profession, individuals tend to work long hours and they sometimes even need to sleep at the hospital. Another stressor would be when their patient acts up or when the patient does not want to work with the psychiatrist. Having these personal skills will help any aspiring psychiatrists to be an effective