[krisssy]

I am going to be starting an online program as a psychiatric nurse practitioner or as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist. I have gotten a lot of conflicting answers re. the difference in the two degrees. I would like to narrow down my question to this: What type of jobs are available to a psychiatric nurse practitioner? What types of jobs are available to a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist? Any career ideas in the areas of addiction nursing or psychiatric gerontology would be interesting to me. I am not interested in having my own psychotherapy practice. I am more interested in hospital work, long term care work, clinic work, or working under a psychiatrist. Although I am not looking to be a psychotherapist, I do enjoy comforting and talking to people about how they feel. I am very interested in how different meds affect people but don't necessarily have to be able to write the scrips myself. Any career or job ideas would be most appreciated. I am not interested in home care. Thanks Krisssy

[Psychrich]

Krissy, depending upon who is doing the hiring and what state you will be practicing will determine some of your issues between CNS or NP. Most states the CNS and NP have the same Scope of Practice and are recognized equally, but you still have to check with the individual states. As pertaining to what type of setting and your job duties, there are many jobs out there in long term settings who do well for themselves. A friend of mine currently is a NP and works in a in-patient acute care setting part time and the rest of the time works with geriatric patients in the nursing home settings. She enjoys both because she does not get caught up with issues in one setting too long and she enjoys the change of pace. Another friend works splits her time between an outpatient setting and the nursing homes or you could also work in at a VA where you could be working outpatients and doing substance abuse work.

There are many avenues for you to take. Alot has to do with what you feel comfortable with and are you willing to move around. There will always be a setting that suits you, you may just have to move to get it.

Another aspect of your degree is the specialty. CNS are certified as Adult Mental Health or Child/Adolescent Mental Health. NP's are certified as Adult or Family, both by the ANCC. There has been a push by the APNA (American Psychiatric Nurses Association) to set up an exam to divide the exams into Geriatric, Adult, and Child/Adolescent, but this will take some time to get approval and validation. I personally can't wait and hope to get some of these issues brought up again at the next conference in Nov.

I wish you luck in whatever your decision.

[Whispera]

I'm a psych CNS. I see my own caseload of patients, assess, diagnose, and prescribe treatment, including labs, therapy, and medication. I work in collaboration with a psychiatrist, but not under her. She's available if I need her and reviews 5% of my charts weekly. The psych NPs where I work do alot of physicals and mostly deal with medical things. I do the psych stuff.