Psychiatrist: What is the cost of hiring?

Why hire a psychiatrist?

Adding a psychiatrist to your staff can help you:

• Take on more patients
• Free up the patient workload so more time can be allotted for existing patients
• Add a new therapeutic focus or expand the patient population to include a particular specialty, e.g., autism, BCBA, etc.

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance psychiatrist

Mental health clinics, hospitals and similar medical settings often hire full-time psychiatrists to handle the patient load. Employing a full-time psychiatrist creates consistency for patients, who can see the same doctor for each appointment for continuity of care. 

Hiring a freelance psychiatrist is an option if you don’t have a large enough patient load to justify a full-time psychiatrist. A freelance psychiatrist is ideal when you only need someone a few hours a week or have an inconsistent patient load from week to week. If the number of patients increases, you can hire a freelance psychiatrist temporarily until they decrease to normal levels.

What are the types of psychiatrists?

While many psychiatrists start out in general psychiatry, some specialize in a particular area. These specialties qualify them to work with specific populations. All psychiatrists go through residency after finishing medical school, but those who choose a specialty often go through additional schooling or residency to learn how to address unique mental health conditions. Some types of psychiatrists include:

• General psychiatrist: Works with all types of patients to diagnose and treat mental health conditions. 
• Child and adolescent psychiatrist: Treats kids under the age of 18. Undergoes training to understand the special needs of kids, including appropriate medications for younger patients.
• Geriatric psychiatrist: Works with elderly patients, addressing special needs and disorders that typically affect older people, such as dementia.
• Forensic psychiatrist: Works within the justice system, including testimony in the courtroom, with experience in criminal activity resulting from mental health disorders.
• Addiction psychiatrist: Treats patients who are addicted to drugs and alcohol with coexisting mental health disorders to help with the addiction and the mental illness.

Where to find psychiatrists

To find the right psychiatrist for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Partner with a medical school: Look for partnerships with medical schools in your area that offer psychiatry programs to recruit psychiatrists who’ve recently finished their schooling.
• Attend medical conferences: Medical conferences give you a chance to network with psychiatrists in person and discuss your career opportunities with them. Being a speaker at these events gives you more publicity and might create interest in psychiatrists who hear you speak.
• Contribute to medical journals: Creating content for medical journals gives you and your medical facility more publicity. Psychiatrists who read the journal might research your facility and discover job openings.
• Network with other medical professionals: Talk to other medical professionals who might have connections with psychiatrists looking for a career change.
• Post your job online: Try posting your psychiatrist job on Indeed to find and attract quality psychiatrist candidates.

Skills to look for in a great Psychiatrist

An ideal Psychiatrist candidate will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• Hold a current Medical License
• Have completed a clinical practicum
• Specific experience with your target population
• Compassion and empathy
• Uphold patient confidentiality
• Maintains clinical professionalism

Writing a psychiatrist job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified Psychiatrist candidates. A psychiatrist job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your psychiatrist job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting . These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on psychiatrist jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Psychiatrist
• General psychiatrist
• Mental health
• Physician assistant
• Psychiatry
• Child psychiatrist
• Telepsychiatry
• Psychiatric nurse practitioner
• Psychologist
• Remote work from home
• Physician

Interviewing psychiatrist candidates

Strong candidates for psychiatrist positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Best practices in research-based pharmacological treatment plans
• Their preferred psychological treatments to the populations within their area of expertise
• How they manage patients who may be dangerous or threatening

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of psychiatrist interview questions for examples (with sample answers).