LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — More of UNLV’s medical school graduates are choosing a career as a psychiatrist.
The chair of the department credits increased awareness around mental health and shift in the younger generations’ view on the mental well-being.
After graduating from the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, Dr. Timothy Shaw is now starting his residency training at University Medical Center.
“The experience has been as good as it can be, but medicine is a bit daunting for a lot of us in our first year, wonderful first year,” Shaw said.
He’s now a child and adolescent psychiatrist. It’s a branch of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental health disorders.
“I really loved the portion of bringing a family together to work on a it as a team, helping to educate parents who are very worried about what is going on because of things like pathology, first episode psychosis,” he said. “A lot of different things that can affect our youth that can be very daunting for a parent to tackle on their own.”
He’s part of a growing number of graduates who are choosing psychiatry, one of the most in-demand medical specialties.
“There’s been a lot of reduction in the stigma around mental health. people talk openly about depression, anxiety, and that was one of the hidden gifts of COVID is that we’ve been embracing and having an ability to talk more openly about it,” said Dr. Lisa Durette, the current chair of the UNLV Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health.
There’s also an enormous need in the Las Vegas Valley.
“The rankings of the states year-over-year in Nevada ranks towards the bottom,” she said. “Although that sounds negative there has been some progress, we have increasing been retaining our graduates in Southern Nevada.”
Out of the 113 people that we’ve graduated out of psychiatry residencies, 81 still practice here, according to Durette. Seven of the ten medical residency spots at UNLV this year went into psychiatry.
It’s also a flexible field.
“Psychiatry is thankfully a great specialty if you do have commitments to family, want to have a little bit more time compared to some of the time intensive specialties,” Dr. Shaw said. “In terms of longevity of career as a psychiatrist in las Vegas, I think there are tons of opportunities to really make a huge impact here.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary for psychiatrists in the U.S. is around $247,350.
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