Psychiatrist CVs have two specific documentation problems that almost no other medical speciality shares. The first is MRCPsych examination parts not individually listed — MRCPsych Papers A and B are distinct from the CASC examination, and a trainee who has passed both papers but not yet sat CASC holds a fundamentally different qualification status from one who holds the full MRCPsych Diploma. The second is Section 12 Approval absent from the credentials section — the statutory authority under the Mental Health Act that allows a psychiatrist to make recommendations for compulsory detention, with a 5-year expiry date, without which an acute inpatient or PICU psychiatric post cannot be independently fulfilled. Both are verifiable, time-sensitive credentials that NHS trusts specifically check before appointment, and both are absent from a majority of psychiatrist CVs submitted for inpatient psychiatric roles.

What Psychiatrist Job Descriptions Require in 2026

Psychiatric posts are filtered through ORIEL specialty training (UK), NHS Trust direct applications, and NRMP match (US) — with statutory credentials checked separately from GMC status.

GMC registration and psychiatric Specialist Register (UK): GMC full registration with licence to practise — stated with number and current licence date; Specialist Register in Psychiatry — subspecialty designation matches CCT: General Adult Psychiatry, Old Age Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAMHS), Forensic Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Rehabilitation Psychiatry, Liaison Psychiatry / Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Intellectual Disability / Learning Disability Psychiatry, Perinatal Mental Health, Addictions Psychiatry, Medical Psychotherapy; CCT date marks eligibility for consultant appointment; CESR route for overseas-trained psychiatrists (equivalent training portfolio to GMC Specialist Register entry); training grades: Core Psychiatry Training (CPT) — CT1, CT2, CT3 (3 years; MRCPsych pursued during CT; CT3 ARCP expected to demonstrate MRCPsych completion or strong progression); Higher Psychiatric Training (HPT): ST4, ST5, ST6 in subspecialty (3 years; ARCP Outcome 1 required at each stage; Penultimate Year Assessment PYA at ST5; sign-off at ST6 for CCT recommendation); Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma in Psychiatry and related teaching qualifications have specific value in academic and liaison psychiatric posts.

MRCPsych — the mandatory psychiatric membership examination (UK): MRCPsych administered by the Royal College of Psychiatrists; three examinations: Paper A (Scientific Basis of Psychiatry — 200 best-of-five questions; 3.5 hours; content: neurosciences (neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuropathology), psychology (psychological theories, developmental psychology, psychotherapy research), research methods and evidence-based medicine, psychopharmacology, classification systems (ICD-11, DSM-5)); Paper B (Clinical Topics — 200 best-of-five questions; 3.5 hours; content: general adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, old age psychiatry, learning disability psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, substance misuse, perinatal, neuropsychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, psychotherapy — biopsychosocial model); CASC (Clinical Assessment of Skills and Competencies — OSCE-style; 16 stations organised as 8 linked pairs; each pair: assessment station (8 minutes) then management/explanation station (8 minutes); station types include: mental state examination, risk assessment, history taking, capacity assessment under MCA 2005, psychoeducation, cognitive assessment (MMSE, ACE-III, MoCA), CBT/psychotherapy explanation, family intervention, side effects counselling); CASC first-attempt pass rate approximately 60%; maximum 4 sittings before re-examination of papers required; MRCPsych Diploma awarded on passing Paper A, Paper B, and CASC — all three required; all three must be stated individually with dates on any psychiatric CV: "MRCPsych Paper A: March 2021; MRCPsych Paper B: September 2021; CASC: March 2022 — MRCPsych Diploma awarded May 2022."

Section 12 Approval and Approved Clinician status (UK): Section 12 Approval under the Mental Health Act 1983 (updated MHA 2007): required for a doctor to be named as a Section 12 approved doctor — authorised to make medical recommendations for compulsory detention under the MHA (Section 2, 3, 4, 36, 37, 38, 48/49); Section 12 Approval is granted by NHS England Regional Office (or Welsh Government / Scottish Government / HSCNI equivalent) following application with supporting evidence of MHA training; training requirement: one-day Section 12 Approval training course with approved provider; renewal every 5 years (NHS England require refresher training and re-application); Section 12 Approval is required for all inpatient acute adult psychiatric posts (Acute ward, PICU — Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit), emergency psychiatry, and liaison psychiatry; many liaison psychiatry and community consultant posts also require Section 12; Section 12 is listed on NHS Trust Intranet approved doctor lists — trusts verify this separately from GMC; expiry date must be stated: "Section 12 Approval (Mental Health Act 1983): NHS England South East Region, approved [date], valid to [date]"; Approved Clinician (AC) status (Mental Health Act 2007): allows clinician to take on Responsible Clinician (RC) functions for detained patients; AC status requires specific Royal College-approved training (usually included in Higher Psychiatric Training ARCP sign-off); RC status enables the consultant psychiatrist to give authority for CTOs (Community Treatment Orders) — relevant for all consultant inpatient posts; formerly Responsible Medical Officer (RMO) — changed to RC terminology in 2007 MHA amendment.

US psychiatric board certification and licensure: Psychiatry residency (4 years — PGY1: transitional or internal medicine year; PGY2–4: psychiatry); ABPN (American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology) General Psychiatry certification: Part 1 Written Examination (200 questions; computer-based; 5 content areas: General, Child/Adolescent, Forensic, Geriatric, Addiction); Part 2 ORAL examination (discontinued since 2019 — replaced by ConSAT — Continued Specialty Assessment and Training — ongoing certification); Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) subspecialty: 2-year CAP fellowship after general psychiatry residency; ABPN CAP board certification (separate examination); ABPN subspecialty certifications: Addiction Psychiatry (1-year fellowship), Forensic Psychiatry (1-year fellowship + forensic board exam), Geriatric Psychiatry (fellowship or alternate pathway), Psychosomatic Medicine (1-year fellowship), Sleep Medicine (shared with neurology), Neurodevelopmental Disabilities; DEA registration (controlled substances — critical for psychiatrist prescribing: benzodiazepines, stimulants, buprenorphine, ketamine, Schedule II opioids for pain patients — DEA X-waiver for buprenorphine prescribing — "DATA 2000 waiver" now replaced by DEA MATE Act as of 2023 — all physicians can prescribe buprenorphine without waiver from December 2022); Prescribers of ketamine/esketamine (Spravato): REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) — esketamine/Spravato REMS certification; prescriber and healthcare setting must be REMS-certified; important for TRD (Treatment-Resistant Depression) specialist CVs.

Structured risk assessment tools and clinical measurement instruments: The most consistently absent documentation on psychiatrist CVs is the specific structured risk assessment tools used and the frequency of their use. Psychiatrists use validated tools daily, but CV entries typically say "experienced in risk assessment" rather than naming the instruments. Key tools: HCR-20v3 (Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20 — Version 3; structured professional judgment tool for violence risk assessment; 20 items across Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management domains; 0-2 each = 0-40 total; SPJ approach — not actuarial scoring but clinical judgment guided by structured evidence); required for forensic psychiatry posts and some PICU/acute posts; requires familiarity with HCR-20 items and research base; PCL-R (Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised — 20 items; forensic psychiatry; requires specific training and certification); Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS): US standard for suicidal ideation and behaviour severity classification; 5 ideation categories and 5 behaviour categories; Sheehan Suicidality Tracking Scale (STS) as alternative; SADPERSONS score: older mnemonic for suicide risk stratification — generally replaced by structured tools; PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 — depression severity 0-27; threshold <5 none, 5-9 mild, 10-14 moderate, 15-19 moderately severe, 20-27 severe; used for antidepressant monitoring and treatment response documentation); GAD-7 (Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item; 0-21; threshold ≥10 = moderate, ≥15 = severe); AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test — 10 items; threshold ≥8 hazardous; ≥15 probable dependence; ≥20 high dependence; AUDIT-C 3-item screener); DAST-10 (Drug Abuse Screening Test — substance use); PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale — schizophrenia severity — positive subscale, negative subscale, general psychopathology subscale; 7-30 each; total 30-210; used in antipsychotic clinical trials and response monitoring); BPRS (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale); CAGE-AID; FAST (Forensic Assessment Tool); MSE (Mental State Examination — not a validated scale but a structured clinical document that must be formally conducted and documented for every new psychiatric assessment and MHA recommendation — named components: appearance and behaviour, speech, mood, affect, thought form, thought content, perceptions, insight, cognition); MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination — dementia screening; 0-30; ≥27 normal; 24-26 borderline; <24 dementia threshold; copyright now held by PAR — Psychological Assessment Resources); ACE-III (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III — 0-100; sensitivity 0.96 specificity 0.96 for dementia; widely used in UK old age psychiatry and memory clinic); MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment — 0-30; ≥26 normal; widely used in liaison psychiatry and general adult for rapid cognitive screen).

ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) credentials and subspecialty competencies: ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy): NICE TA59 (Technology Appraisal 59 — ECT in depressive illness, catatonia, mania) — recommended for severe treatment-resistant depression, acute catatonia, prolonged severe manic episode; ECT prescription: psychiatrist prescribes ECT (number of treatments, unilateral vs bilateral electrode placement, stimulus parameters — energy, pulse width, pulse frequency); ECT monitoring: EEG seizure monitoring and motor seizure monitoring required; ECT Practitioner (non-prescriber clinical lead): specific ECT training qualification (ECTAS — ECT Accreditation Service — RCPsych accreditation of ECT clinics; ECT nurse practitioner or nurse lead role is distinct from psychiatrist ECT prescribing role); psychiatrists involved in ECT should document: "ECT prescriber (unilateral and bilateral electrode placement; Thymatron System IV) — 48 courses prescribed in 3-year consultant post; ECTAS accredited clinic"; Clozapine prescribing: restricted antipsychotic requiring CPMS (Clozapine Patient Monitoring Service) or equivalent registry enrolment; Novartis MyMoriMed or Dentsply CPMS registration; weekly FBC for 18 weeks → biweekly → 4-weekly; prescribers of clozapine must understand the neutropenia grading and mandatory stop criteria (ANC <1.5 ×10⁹/L); stating "clozapine prescriber — CPMS registered; 14 patients on clozapine managed in consultant practice" documents a restricted prescribing competency.

Psychotherapy competencies: Psychiatrists in the UK are expected to complete basic psychotherapy training as part of Core and Higher Psychiatric Training — specifically: individual brief focused therapy (during CPT — supervised cases required); group therapy experience; family intervention; CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) — psychiatrists typically do CBT-informed practice rather than full CBT delivery (which is the BABCP-accredited therapist's role); EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) — Part 1 training available to psychiatrists; DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) — team-based; psychiatrist functions as prescriber and medical assessor in DBT programme; MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) — adapted from MBSR; evidence base in recurrent depression prophylaxis (NICE recommended); CAT (Cognitive Analytic Therapy) — specific training (ACAT accreditation); Medical Psychotherapy consultants have formal Psychotherapy accreditation via Royal College — higher and distinct from general psychotherapy training in CPT.

Psychiatrist salary context 2026: UK CT1–3: £43,923; ST4–6: £50,000–£62,000; Consultant Psychiatrist (NHS): £99,000–£126,000; private practice psychiatrist: highly variable (£200–£600+/session); US Psychiatry Resident: $65,000–$80,000; US Psychiatrist (Attending): $250,000–$350,000; US CAP (Child Psychiatry): $200,000–$320,000; US forensic psychiatry: $220,000–$400,000+.

ATS Keywords for a Psychiatrist Resume

  • Title variants: Psychiatrist, Consultant Psychiatrist, General Adult Psychiatrist, CAMHS Psychiatrist, Old Age Psychiatrist, Forensic Psychiatrist, Liaison Psychiatrist, Rehabilitation Psychiatrist, Perinatal Psychiatrist, Addictions Psychiatrist, Learning Disability Psychiatrist, Community Psychiatrist, PICU Psychiatrist, Psychiatric Registrar, Core Trainee Psychiatry
  • Registration: GMC, Specialist Register, CCT, Section 12, Section 12 Approval, Approved Clinician, Responsible Clinician, ABPN, board certified psychiatrist, state medical license, DEA
  • Examinations: MRCPsych, MRCPsych Paper A, MRCPsych Paper B, CASC, FRCPCH, RCPsych, ABPN, CAP board
  • Legal and MHA: Mental Health Act, MHA 1983, MHA 2007, Section 2, Section 3, Section 12, Section 12 Approved, Approved Clinician, Responsible Clinician, Community Treatment Order, CTO, AMHP, Mental Health Tribunal, First Tier Tribunal, MCA 2005, capacity assessment, DoLS, DOLS, Court of Protection
  • Risk assessment tools: HCR-20, PCL-R, C-SSRS, Columbia, SADPERSONS, PHQ-9, GAD-7, AUDIT, AUDIT-C, DAST, PANSS, BPRS, MSE, mental state examination, risk assessment, suicide risk, violence risk, structured professional judgment
  • Cognitive assessment: MMSE, ACE-III, ACE-R, MoCA, MOCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Addenbrooke's, cognitive examination, dementia assessment, memory clinic
  • Treatments: ECT, electroconvulsive therapy, ECTAS, clozapine, CPMS, Thymatron, TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, esketamine, Spravato, REMS, CBT, DBT, EMDR, MBCT, CAT, psychotherapy, psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, family therapy
  • Subspecialty: CAMHS, PICU, liaison psychiatry, forensic, old age psychiatry, perinatal, addictions, intellectual disability, rehabilitation, neuropsychiatry, eating disorder
  • Systems: RiO, Carenotes, SystmOne, Paris (Wigan), EPEX, MHA Tracker, DATIX
  • Long-tail phrases: psychiatrist resume, psychiatrist CV, MRCPsych cv, consultant psychiatrist cv, how to write a psychiatrist cv, psychiatric registrar cv, CAMHS psychiatrist cv, forensic psychiatrist resume, old age psychiatrist cv, psychiatrist resume examples 2026, general adult psychiatrist cv

Placement: Section 12 Approval with expiry date at the top of registrations — not in education or at the end. MRCPsych with all three parts individually listed. HCR-20 or C-SSRS in risk assessment skills bullet if used. Clozapine prescriber status if held. ECT prescriber with number of courses if applicable.

Psychiatrist CV Structure and Risk Assessment Bullets

Section order:

  1. Registrations and Statutory Approvals — GMC Number + Licence to Practise; Section 12 Approval (NHS England region, approval date, expiry date); AC (Approved Clinician) status if awarded; ALS/ILS ([date]); Safeguarding Level 3 Adults and Children; Clozapine CPMS registration (if applicable)
  2. Qualifications — primary degree; MRCPsych (Paper A, Paper B, CASC — all individually with dates); FRCPsych (if held); Postgraduate qualifications (PGCertMedEd, etc.)
  3. Clinical Appointments — chronological; each post: dates, hospital, team, grade; caseload size and patient group (PICU, acute ward, CRT, CMHT, memory clinic, forensic)
  4. Statutory and Legal Competencies — Section 12 recommendations made (approximate volume); MHT reports and tribunal appearances; DoLS assessments; Court of Protection reports; capacity assessments (MCA 2005)
  5. Risk Assessment Competencies — tools used with volume (HCR-20, C-SSRS, AUDIT, PHQ-9, PANSS); note any specialist training
  6. Psychotherapy and Specialist Skills — CBT-informed; any formal psychotherapy training; clozapine prescriber; ECT prescriber; TMS; esketamine REMS (US)
  7. Audit and QI — closed cycles with re-audit
  8. Research and Publications — citations
  9. Teaching — medical student/CT/ST level; psychotherapy supervision

Two to three pages for CT/ST posts; three to five pages for consultant applications; no page limit for academic consultant posts.

Three example psychiatrist CV entries:

  • Statutory credentials header: "Section 12 Approval (Mental Health Act 1983): NHS England South East Region — approved March 2023, valid to March 2028. Approved Clinician (AC) status: awarded at CCT (July 2024) — RC functions for detained patients confirmed at consultant appointment. GMC Number: [XXXXXXX] — Full Registration with Licence to Practise (revalidated May 2024, next appraisal November 2025)."

  • Risk assessment bullet: "Risk assessment clinical competency — Acute Adult Psychiatric In-patient Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (32-bed acute ward; 1:15 PICU beds, 1:6 acute beds; Brixton catchment): structured risk assessment using HCR-20v3 (Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20) for all admissions from forensic CMHT and for all patients considered for discharge to home with forensic history — completed HCR-20v3 on 18 patients during ST5-6 year; Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) used for all suicide risk assessment in ward rounds and Pre-Discharge Risk Assessment (PDRA) tool — 160+ C-SSRS assessments during 18-month rotation; risk formulation documented in RiO (clinical records system) and linked to CPA (Care Programme Approach) care plan; Section 2 and Section 3 MHA recommendations: 42 Section 2 and 28 Section 3 recommendations as ST5-6 (all as second signatory with Section 12 consultant — full signatory authority from Section 12 approval, March 2023); Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) reports: 14 reports written during ST5-6 year; attended 8 tribunal hearings."

  • Clozapine and ECT prescriber entry: "Specialist prescribing competencies — Consultant General Adult Psychiatry, AWP NHS Trust (Bristol): Clozapine prescribing — CPMS registered prescriber (Novartis MyMoriMed platform); 11 patients initiated on clozapine during first 18 months of consultant post; baseline FBC and metabolic monitoring established for all; one amber result (ANC 1.8 ×10⁹/L) — dose reduction and FBC intensification protocol applied; no red results (ANC <1.5); ECT prescribing — Thymatron System IV; unilateral (RUL) and bilateral (BL) electrode placement; individualised stimulus titration; EEG and motor seizure monitoring protocol; 14 courses prescribed in 18 months (11 treatment-resistant depression, 2 bipolar depression, 1 catatonia); all prescribed under NICE TA59 criteria; ECTAS accredited clinic; post-ECT PHQ-9 response tracked — mean PHQ-9 reduction from 22.3 to 8.4 across 12 completed courses."

Three Psychiatrist CV Mistakes That Affect Applications

MRCPsych examination parts not individually stated. MRCPsych Paper A and Paper B can be passed without the CASC being sat — the papers are written examinations taken at different points in Core Psychiatric Training, while the CASC is a clinical examination that is not sat until the trainee has sufficient clinical experience. A consultant psychiatry post shortlisting panel needs to know whether all three parts are complete and the MRCPsych Diploma has been awarded. An application that states "MRCPsych (2022)" is ambiguous: it could mean all three parts passed and Diploma awarded, or it could mean only the papers passed with CASC outstanding, or it could even refer to individual papers in a way that is impossible to verify without calling the applicant. The fix is simple and unambiguous: "MRCPsych Paper A: March 2021 (first attempt). MRCPsych Paper B: September 2021 (first attempt). CASC: March 2022 (second attempt). MRCPsych Diploma awarded May 2022." That is four lines that remove all questions about examination standing.

Section 12 Approval not stated, or stated without expiry date. NHS Trusts maintain internal approved doctor lists for Section 12 and verify Section 12 Approval independently of GMC registration — a psychiatrist can hold full GMC registration and a current licence to practise, but without Section 12 Approval they cannot make MHA recommendations and cannot function independently in an acute inpatient or PICU post. The approval lapses every 5 years and requires renewal application and refresher training. An application to an acute psychiatry consultant post from a psychiatrist who holds Section 12 Approval but does not state it on their CV requires a telephonic or written verification step from the Trust before the appointment can be confirmed. An application that states "Section 12 Approval: NHS England North West, approved January 2022, valid to January 2027" is immediately processable. An application that omits it generates a query. There is no reason to generate that query when three lines of text eliminate it.

Risk assessment described without structured tool documentation. Risk assessment is the most fundamental clinical activity in psychiatry — the activity that determines admission, leave, discharge, tribunal evidence, and CTO decisions. Yet the overwhelming majority of psychiatrist CVs describe risk assessment as a generic competency: "experience in risk assessment," "conducting clinical risk assessments," "managing high-risk patients." These descriptions do not differentiate between a psychiatrist who conducts risk assessments using validated structured professional judgment tools (HCR-20v3, START — Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability, PCL-R) and a psychiatrist who writes a paragraph of risk description in a clinical letter without structured formulation. Forensic posts specifically require HCR-20v3 competency; PICU posts look for C-SSRS or equivalent suicidality rating; CMHT posts value structured risk formulation linked to CPA plans. Stating the specific tools used, any training completed, and an approximate volume of assessments completed — "HCR-20v3 used for all forensic CMHT discharges and Section 17 leave decisions; completed 18 HCR-20v3 assessments during ST5-6; attended 2-day SPJ training (HCR-20v3)" — demonstrates a clinical standard of risk assessment practice that distinguishes the applicant.

If you are a psychiatric registrar or consultant psychiatrist applying to NHS training or consultant posts and want your CV rebuilt around MRCPsych parts, Section 12 Approval, structured risk assessment competencies, and subspecialty credentials from your actual clinical practice, Resumegpt generates your psychiatrist CV from your work history in under 60 seconds — MRCPsych papers listed individually, Section 12 Approval front-loaded with expiry date, risk assessment tools named, clozapine and ECT credentials included, and ATS-optimised for RCPsych specialty training and NHS consultant applications.