Psychiatrist: What is the cost of hiring?

Why recruit a psychiatrist?

Psychiatrists are medical doctors with a background in both medicine and psychiatry. Using information gathered from GPs, social workers, your patient’s relatives and your patient’s own thoughts, psychiatrists diagnose and treat patients with mental health conditions. This can also involve carrying out blood tests and scans in order to rule out other health conditions. They can also prescribe medicine to your patients, and can recommend counselling and other forms of behavioural therapy.

Qualities of a great psychiatrist:

• Able to listen and carefully consider your patient’s needs
• Can help your practice take on a new focus, such as learning disabilities
• Able to anticipate possible issues or complications regarding your patients

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance psychiatrist

You might choose to recruit a psychiatrist on a locum basis. If so, you might find them through an agency that specialises in medical professionals. Locum psychiatrists may be looking to block-book shifts to cover a long-term period. You might find a locum psychiatrist useful if your permanent psychiatrist is on long-term sick leave or parental/maternity leave. They may also help take on some of the patient load, freeing up time on a week-to-week basis as required. It is important that there is some handover or onboarding process for your locum psychiatrist, and that they are willing to integrate fully with the rest of your mental health services team.

What are the different types of psychiatrist?

Your mental health services team may cover a specific mental health issue, disability or behavioural issue. If so, you will need to find a psychiatrist that specialises in the field that your team covers. If your team covers issues particular to children and adolescents, you should look for a child and adolescent psychiatrist. If you run a nursing home, you might look to recruit a geriatric psychiatrist. If your team deals primarily with intellectual disabilities, you should ideally look for an intellectual disability psychiatrist.

• Child Psychiatrist: A child psychiatrist works with children up to the age of 18 who have mental health issues, working with families and usually within the local community.
• Geriatric Psychiatrist: A geriatric psychiatrist usually works in a nursing home or geriatric ward, providing holistic mental health support and care for older adults who have issues more common in old age, like dementia.
• Intellectual Disability Psychiatrist: An intellectual disability psychiatrist works with people who have intellectual disabilities, usually working within local communities and with families.
• Forensic Psychiatrist: These psychiatrists work within the court system, specialising in behavioural and mental health issues associated with criminal activities. 
• Organisational Psychiatrist: These psychiatrists can help you develop mental health policies for your company, and can train your management in mental health coaching.

Where to find a psychiatrist?

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

• Checking registered psychiatrist lists: This helps narrow down your search to registered psychiatrists who have already had a background check completed. 
• Networking with psychiatry departments at universities: Via this route, you can meet potential candidates in person, giving you the opportunity to assess whether their character would be a good fit for the rest of your mental health services team. 
• Attending medical conferences: Medical conferences provide an excellent opportunity for face-to-face meetings with psychiatrists with a wide range of specialisations.
  
• Advertising in medical journals: By advertising your practice and any available openings, psychiatrists can learn more about your specialisations and research fields if applicable. 

Post your job online: Try posting your job for a psychiatrist on Indeed to find and attract quality psychiatrist candidates.

Skills to look for in a great psychiatrist

A great candidate for a psychiatrist role will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• emotional resilience
• ability to predict patient behaviours and therapeutic outcomes
• an interest and enthusiasm for working in complex, high-pressure environments
• drive and desire to help others
• an ability to empathise with patients without internalising their issues

Writing a psychiatrist job description

A thoughtful description is important for 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 job description for a psychiatrist, consider including some or all of the following keywords to strengthen the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms resulting in clicks on jobs for psychiatrists, according to Indeed data:

• psychology
• psychiatrist
• consultant psychiatrist
• psychiatry
• mental health
• psychologist
• specialty doctor psychiatry
• doctor

Interviewing psychiatrist candidates

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

• psychiatry best practices
• scientific research on guided treatment plans
• strategies for handling high-pressure environments
• handling dangerous patients
• conflict resolution strategies regarding distressed or aggressive patients

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