Thank you that explains it well.
I'm currently doing residency in Australia but have been curious about working in the states, hence the question.
For people who are interested I thought I'd share how the system works here (which also explains why I decided not to do a residency in the US).
During residency which is 5 years after a general internship (all Australian doctors do a year of a little bit of everything- medicine, surgery and EM) so it's 6 years post graduation. However, typically is a 50 hour week at worst.
During training we get paid a basic wage for the 40 hours a week that are standard (for a PGY2 this would be about $65,000) and then overtime at roughly time and a half so $60-$80p/h for overtime. When we graduate you can start a private rpactice, in most areas you can fill your books quickly as there is a 2-3 month wait to see a private psychiatatrist. The standard hourly rate for outpatient psychiatry is $265p/h (of which the government will rebate to the patient $130 and their insurance will mostly cover the rest) or you can take a job in the public health care system and get paid around $130K upwards first year out. (Did I mention that most Australian doctors graduate from medical school with a debt of at msot around $30,000 or so...)
Oh, and the Australian system does allow psychiatrist trained overseas to work here without doing our training program, as long as you work in "an area of need" (which is basically everywhere...) Just in case anyone wants a well paid holiday to Australia.
