Requesting Information on California psychiatry jobs

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notlucid

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Hi

I am an inpatient psychiatrist for the last 10 years. I had a nice job seeing 12 inpatient beds a day and now I need to see more patients faster. This is in an area with huge demand where patients travel 200 to 300 miles for a bed . I am looking to move to California and get a job with the state in either state hospital or correctional job.
I dont know much about both settings, so will appreciate any information. I am looking for areas where 4, 10 hours, are a possibility as sort of burned out of production machine.

Any experience or advise would be appreciated.

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Hi

I am an inpatient psychiatrist for the last 10 years. I had a nice job seeing 12 inpatient beds a day and now I need to see more patients faster. This is in an area with huge demand where patients travel 200 to 300 miles for a bed . I am looking to move to California and get a job with the state in either state hospital or correctional job.
I dont know much about both settings, so will appreciate any information. I am looking for areas where 4, 10 hours, are a possibility as sort of burned out of production machine.

Any experience or advise would be appreciated.
I had a friend who worked at Atascadero, not there anymore. His advice was stay very far away from that place, as it was a dangerous environment.
 
Regarding wolfvgang's friend, I didn't think Atascadero was that bad but Napa is pretty scary (Atascadero has a better security set up). I feel safer in corrections in CA than most inpatient t units.

Corrections jobs tend to be slower paced than the state hospitals. Your panel will be smaller. Pay is the same at both, starting about $236k, you can work 4/10s.

Getting a job in either system is pretty easy if you're flexible with location. The problem is that many of the openings in CDCR are in what most people would consider some of the worst places CA has to offer. In the more desirable areas (like San Quentin, you might only get a couple openings each year and they are often filled word of mouth and more and more by fellowship trained folks. It's easier with the State hospitals, and several of them are in a pretty area but mostly rural.

Keep in mind that the state hospitals are more akin to an inpatient unit. Comparatively little of corrections work will be inpatient.


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Thanks for the detailed reply, although I had heard higher figures like 262 or in some cases higher in remote cdcr locations. I like inpatient and ability to do good work but am sort of burned out by inpatient and constant undercutting by insurance. Add to that constant pressure to be productive. I think I will take the slower pace, for me psychiatry is more fun with slower pace.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply, although I had heard higher figures like 262 or in some cases higher in remote cdcr locations. I like inpatient and ability to do good work but am sort of burned out by inpatient and constant undercutting by insurance. Add to that constant pressure to be productive. I think I will take the slower pace, for me psychiatry is more fun with slower pace.

ummm....there *is* a relationship between undercutting by insurance(meaning lower reimbursements) and salaries of govt jobs where insurance isn't involved(like corrections). Is there some lag time? Sure. A good bit actually...so much in fact that it might be possible to hop back and forth before it happens.

Corrections psychiatry isn't brain surgery. A large percentage of psychiatrists not currently working in corrections would be more than qualified to take a corrections job should they desire in the future.
 
Corrections psychiatry can be as challenging as any, where as there can be mindless practice in any setting. I agree that state hospitals actually deal with higher severity and complexity.State hospital in my residency program was where I learned the most about psychopathology.
No experience with California but a friend who interviewed there told me that some prisons in remote areas offer 280k, he decided to stay in outpatient psychiatry, as they dont let you keep your phone, security issues, threats by patients etc..
 
Thanks for the detailed reply, although I had heard higher figures like 262 or in some cases higher in remote cdcr locations. /QUOTE]
You will definitely see some special offers. Check out Stockton. They were offering close to $300k due to the undesirability (to most) of living out there.
 
Corrections psychiatry isn't brain surgery. A large percentage of psychiatrists not currently working in corrections would be more than qualified to take a corrections job should they desire in the future.
Sure, the point is that a vast majority of those "large percentage" of psychiatrists, for various reasons, could never tolerate the environment. Which is why corrections need to pay more in California.
 
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