Live Essay

Maranda Tapia
Eng. 101
4-5-10
Essay #3
A Deeper Look
Deciding your career path is one of the most difficult decisions that you will ever have to make. There are so many different careers in this world and you can only pick one. A quote that helped me with my decision was, “Find a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life.” I wanted a job that I would look forward to waking up and going to every day and I would never dread it. I have always enjoyed children and I knew that I wanted a career that involved working with them. My first semester in college I took my first psychology class and it was amazing. I talked with my teacher about the possible career opportunities I could venture into and he gave me a lot of great suggestions. It was then that I made my difficult decision on which career path I would want to take, Child Psychology.
Child psychology is not a specific degree so I would obtain my degree in counseling psychology and specialize in children. Counseling psychologist’s help people deal with their everyday problems and help improve their quality of life. Helping people feel better about their situations, their problems, and many other things is something I love to do. Walking away from someone knowing that I did whatever I could to put a smile on their face makes me feel like I had just achieved something extraordinary. The feeling I get is a sense of accomplishment and success and that is one of the greatest feelings to me. I enjoy making children laugh and smile and when they do my love for them only grows stronger. If I could do anything within my power to take away a child’s pain I would do it in a heartbeat, even with never meeting the child before. I love knowing I have assisted them in moving past the obstacles in their lives and I have helped give them the power to overcome the burdens that have trapped them in a bad place.
The job outlook for psychologists is on the rise but not substantially. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics it is expected to increase 11% through 2018. The competition to be a psychologist depends on the type and degree you have earned. It is said by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that job prospects will be best for those that have a doctorates degree and those with a masters will have a harder time finding jobs. Salaries vary from profession, experience, and degrees, the middle 50 percent earned between $48,700 and $82,800. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $37,900, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $106,840 (Bureau).
There are many levels of counseling psychology in which I could enter into and they all require different amounts of schooling. The path that I choose to take is to attain my doctoral degree, which would give me the ability to have my own practice without working under an employer. There is quite a long process I would have to go through in order to achieve my doctorates. First I would have to go through all the basic schooling and get my Associates of Arts degree, which will take two years. Second I would have the choice of obtaining my bachelors degree or my master’s degree, taking another two to four years. My last step would be the hardest and the longest step, getting my doctoral degree, adding on five years. The total amount of time I would be attending school would be nine to ten years. After school I would then go through trying to get my licensure to open up my own practice. After all is said and done my career aspiration would be complete and I would be doing what I love.
My career choice has always been one of my most thought about decisions. I always knew that I wanted to help people in their time of need since I was a little girl. I was one to constantly ask what was wrong and I feel like I have this special sense to notice when others are not happy at that moment. After offering them any help that they needed or wanted I felt very content knowing that I made a difference in that person’s life. Children are another thing that make me feel happy and content. Combining the two, psychology and children, would make for a great career and I would enjoy going to work every day of my life. Being a child psychologist would enable me to help children better their lives and develop a trusting relationship with them so I can help them to the fullest potential. I am most certain that I have made the right career choice and I am eager to get started.
The biggest controversy that a psychologist faces is the right to prescribe prescription drugs. The debate has been going on for many years now and has still not come to an end. Out of fifty states only two have been granted the right to prescribe drugs, New Mexico and Louisiana. The law states that only psychologists with a PhD in the area of clinical psychology may prescribe prescription drugs. They must be trained in hundreds of hours in pharmacology, physiology, and drug interactions (Mental Health Weekly). Psychologist’s opinions on the subject vary from psychologist to psychologist. Some believe that they should be able to because they are just as qualified as psychiatrists. They say that the medications they are prescribing have everything do with mental health, which they are more than familiar with. Others argue the matter because they say that just because they may be qualified that does not make them a medical doctor. There are many different opinions on the topic and that is what makes it a leading controversy among psychologists.

My opinion on the matter is I would take the side of not allowing psychologists the privilege to prescribe medication for multiple reasons. First of all psychologists are not qualified to prescribe prescription drugs. Allowing them to do so will only decrease the level of safety for patients. Psychologists do indeed go through many years of school but not the required schooling to prescribe medications. They specialize in social and behavioral sciences rather than courses involving the body cavity. The knowledge they would need to attain is the understanding of physiology, chemistry, and the symptoms, risks, and outcomes that all drugs are capable of. The education that is supposed to be equal to other prescriptive authorities does not equal one and the same. The requirements to become a prescribing psychologist are highly toned down and not made as serious as it should be. Psychologists would have to undergo two years of additional learning which is done on their own time in the evening, weekend, or home courses (Dombeck). Psychologists do not know the effects of the medications they will be giving to their patients and the seriousness and expertise involved when prescribing the mental health drugs. Mental health drugs are among the most powerful in modern medicine. The risks involved can lead to serious health problems or even death (Dombeck).
Another reason that we do not need to grant psychologists the right to prescribe medications is simply because we already have enough prescribing professionals that are capable of doing so. Giving psychologists this privilege would only create unnecessary work for a psychologist. On a more serious matter this would also raise health care costs. Due to this raise it would flow over to the taxpayers and their patients. Additionally, it would inflate psychologists’ liability insurance. With our economy not being in the best condition at this time I am sure that people will not be willing to pay these increases. These are all things that we as a society could do without.
Those that are for the right for psychologists to prescribe prescription drugs argue that they know just as much about these medications as those who prescribe it. Psychologists work with mental health drugs from a day to day basis regarding their clients. They have to be familiar with what their patient is taking and the effects it has. Another point is psychologist see their patients more frequently than a psychiatrists who rarely sees them. Many psychologists claim they have been through the proper schooling and deserve the right to have the privilege of prescribing mental health medications (Charushila). To be able to have this right they would have to go through the proper schooling just as those who are able to prescribe. They then would have the same qualification as any other prescribing professional, equaling the authority.
Those that are against the right to prescribe prescription drugs argue that psychologists are not qualified in the field of prescription drugs. They debate that they specialize in relating to patients with mental health problems not the treatment of mental health problems. Those that have the authority to prescribe these medications have a great amount of training in this area. They have undergone many years of schooling to gain this expertise in which psychologists have not. Another claim is that there is no need for psychologists to be entering this medical area. There are no signs of shortage of prescribing professionals. If psychologists are granted the right to prescribe mental health medications then they will start to take out those professions that already have this privilege (Dombeck). There are many arguments that go against the right to prescribe prescription drugs and all are rational and logical.
The need for allowing psychologists to prescribe prescription drugs is unnecessary and unwarranted. There are already plenty of prescribing professionals in place that have gone through the proper training, licensure, and practice. Passing on this right to psychologists would only uncover many avoidable issues and controversies that do not need to be uncovered. The system that is in place now has worked well and adding psychologist into the mix of prescribing professionals would only cause problems. I believe that if psychologists feel the need to be qualified to prescribe drugs to their patients, they need to go back and get the proper schooling and certification to do so. Many of the most credible associations of psychology agree that they do not want this privilege and are not encouraging this to be passed.