Clinician vs psychiatrist

The differences between clinicians and psychiatrists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a clinician, becoming a psychiatrist takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a psychiatrist has an average salary of $229,034, which is higher than the $60,150 average annual salary of a clinician.

The top three skills for a clinician include social work, patients and patient care. The most important skills for a psychiatrist are patients, diagnosis, and patient care.

Clinician vs psychiatrist overview

	Clinician	Psychiatrist
Yearly salary	$60,150	$229,034
Hourly rate	$28.92	$110.11
Growth rate	9%	7%
Number of jobs	105,023	29,979
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 49%	Doctoral Degree, 32%
Average age	45	48
Years of experience	4	6

What does a clinician do?

A clinician specializes in providing diagnosis, treatment, and direct care to patients with different illnesses. A clinician's duties mainly revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis, providing medical care through various therapies, and improving one's overall health condition. Furthermore, a clinician must obtain and analyze a patient's complete medical history, provide diagnostic tests, always monitor the effects of treatment on a patient, provide prognosis and consider the overall impact on a patient's health and well-being.

What does a psychiatrist do?

A Psychiatrist is a medical practitioner specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. They treat patients utilizing psychotherapeutic methods and medications.

Clinician vs psychiatrist salary

Clinicians and psychiatrists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Clinician	Psychiatrist
Average salary	$60,150	$229,034
Salary range	Between $34,000 And $103,000	Between $133,000 And $393,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Fargo, ND
Highest paying state	Nevada	Alaska
Best paying company	Pace University	Yuma Regional Medical Center
Best paying industry	-	Health Care

Differences between clinician and psychiatrist education

There are a few differences between a clinician and a psychiatrist in terms of educational background:

	Clinician	Psychiatrist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 49%	Doctoral Degree, 32%
Most common major	Psychology	Medicine
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	Duke University

Clinician vs psychiatrist demographics

Here are the differences between clinicians' and psychiatrists' demographics:

	Clinician	Psychiatrist
Average age	45	48
Gender ratio	Male, 24.3% Female, 75.7%	Male, 44.6% Female, 55.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 3.1% White, 74.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 5.3% Unknown, 2.8% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 18.0% White, 64.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	15%	10%

Differences between clinician and psychiatrist duties and responsibilities

Clinician example responsibilities.

Perform thorough substance abuse assessments incorporating instruments such as ASAM, SASSI and urine drug screens; provide individual therapy.
Spearhead the development of rehabilitation programs serving adults with chemical dependency and mental health diagnoses with the manager.
Follow all ethical CARF standards when treating the residential client.
Facilitate stabilization, assessment, care and compassion for those in critical need.
Provide CBT and motivational interviewing for individual and group therapy to clients' who are on methadone.
Used motivational interviewing to lead recovery and therapy groups for IOP and PHP programs in the evenings and on weekends.

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Psychiatrist example responsibilities.

Provide psychiatric evaluations, diagnosis and treatment, including prescribing and administering psychotropic medications, conduct individual and group psychotherapy.
Case load includes children, adolescents and adults.
Provide accurate, timely and complete documentation in the EMR.
Conduct full neurological evaluation, including lab, MRI & /or EEG.
Work closely with Medicaid in areas of compliance needs and information of the clients.
Create multidisciplinary team (psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse, marriage family therapist) to spear head new veterans parenting class.

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Clinician vs psychiatrist skills

Common clinician skills

Social Work, 26%
Patients, 14%
Patient Care, 4%
Individual Therapy, 4%
Mental Health, 4%
Mental Illness, 3%

Common psychiatrist skills

Patients, 32%
Diagnosis, 11%
Patient Care, 5%
Mental Illness, 5%
Psychiatric Services, 5%
EMR, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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