Need infor on ACNN certificate-psyche nursing

Specialties Psychiatric

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

Our facility is requesting that we take 30 hrs. and get certified in Mental Health Nursing. Does anyone know how to take a course online and get certified this way? I live in a very small town and closest college is hours away. I am not able to go out of town to attend any seminars.

Thank you so much for any info you may have.:mad:

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Specializes in LTC, Nursing Management, WCC.

i am not quite sure because i have not done it yet. i am waiting until i get all the hours first. but it appears there is a cd you can listen to and it will give you 17 of the 30.

http://guest.cvent.com/events/info/summary.aspx?e=1f2b4bd4-0143-40f4-b252-48b473d7c018

of course it is only $255. ouch!

and then this says that there is a home study group. here is the link:

http://www.nursecredentialing.org/cert/revseminars.html

psychiatric/mental health nursing march 13, 20, 27

apr. 3, 10, 17, 24

may 1, 2008

8pm eastern karan kverno, phd, aprn-pmh, bc home study group register

sorry i couldn't be more help. maybe give them a call. let us know what you find out!! :)

good luck

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

THANK YOU, PsychNurseWannaBe!!!! I really appreciate it....

Will check it out next week when I am off....will forward any info...

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Specializes in LTC, Nursing Management, WCC.
THANK YOU, PsychNurseWannaBe!!!! I really appreciate it....

Will check it out next week when I am off....will forward any info...

You are welcome... would greater appreciate any info you find. They do have a practice test on their website. I only got 3 wrong... Wish I could take it now before I lose my mental health theory information in my head. :)

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It's not a matter of "taking a course" to get certified -- the certification in psych nursing is offered by the ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center), and it is a means of verifying/certifying that you are a competent, experienced psychiatric nurse (same as for all the other "flavors" of certification in nursing).

You have to have practiced 2000 hours in psychiatric nursing specifically, have 30 hours of continuing ed in psych nursing, and pass the certification exam. A big business has developed in offering courses and seminars to help you prepare for the exam, but taking a course like that doesn't get you certified. Conversely, it's not necessary to pay for a course to help you prepare for the exam (I didn't pay for any special materials to help me with certification, either when I first got certified as a generalist psych nurse, or, later on, when I became a psych CNS and got my CS certification). The point of the exam is to verify that you are a competent, experienced knowledgeable psych nurse -- if you've been practicing in psych nursing and staying current with the literature and continuing education, that should be sufficient preparation by itself.

Here is the ANCC website with specific information: http://www.nursecredentialing.org/cert/eligibility/PMHBSN.html

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Specializes in LTC, Nursing Management, WCC.
It's not a matter of "taking a course" to get certified -- the certification in psych nursing is offered by the ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center), and it is a means of verifying/certifying that you are a competent, experienced psychiatric nurse (same as for all the other "flavors" of certification in nursing).

You have to have practiced 2000 hours in psychiatric nursing specifically, have 30 hours of continuing ed in psych nursing, and pass the certification exam. A big business has developed in offering courses and seminars to help you prepare for the exam, but taking a course like that doesn't get you certified. Conversely, it's not necessary to pay for a course to help you prepare for the exam (I didn't pay for any special materials to help me with certification, either when I first got certified as a generalist psych nurse, or, later on, when I became a psych CNS and got my CS certification). The point of the exam is to verify that you are a competent, experienced knowledgeable psych nurse -- if you've been practicing in psych nursing and staying current with the literature and continuing education, that should be sufficient preparation by itself.

Here is the ANCC website with specific information: http://www.nursecredentialing.org/cert/eligibility/PMHBSN.html

I was thinking of the course from the ANCC regarding CE credits. It looks like if you do them, you can rack up some good CE credits. Is this not true? Don't you need 30 CE every 2 years?

Thanks

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I was responding to the OP's question, which sounded like she was under the impression that "taking a course" is how you get certified. Yes, you have to have the CEU hours to get certified, and continue to accrue CEUs to maintain your certification (and, in many states, your basic licensure).

There are lots of sources for CEUs, and different sources charge different fees for them. The AHEC libraries in my region provide continuing ed offerings, many in psych, at a much more reasonable cost than a lot of the "for profit" CEU businesses; the local mental health agency or NAMI chapter often have speakers/seminars that offer CEUs, schools of nursing and hospitals often offer speakers/seminars at little or no cost, etc, etc. In my own case, I've always been a member of ISPN (and the ACAPN before it became part of ISPN) and find that attending the national convention each year provides most of the required # of CEUs, plus, I feel that the membership offers me significant other benefits, as well. (The same is true of APNA, although I'm not an APNA member.)

But I'm not here to recommend any particular source of CEUs -- I was just trying to point out that you don't have to "buy" CEUs or exam preparation help from the ANCC (or any other particular vendor). It's a big world out there! If you "shop around" a little, you can often meet the continuing ed requirements without spending a lot of $$. Of course, that's assuming that you pursue continuing education on an ongoing, continuous basis, not that you wake up one morning and say, "Wow, I need 30 hours of CEUs by next week!" :uhoh21:

And, again, re: the exam itself, the point is not that you're supposed to have to learn a whole bunch of new stuff for the exam -- it's intended to simply verify that you already know what any competent, experienced psych nurse (in the case of psych certification! :)) already knows. IMHO, all these "certification exam prep courses" are kind of a racket.

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

Our state, Georgia, does not require any cont. Ed. hours for any field of nursing. (I know, they should) so for this particular certification it sounds like I just need to take the test????? then get certified?????

My boss explained it as "needing 30 hrs. cont. ed then get certified"

He wasn't exactly knowledgeable about how to go about it either.

Thanks for all the info., ELKPARK, I will search out how to get the hours in first.

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Our state, Georgia, does not require any cont. Ed. hours for any field of nursing. (I know, they should) so for this particular certification it sounds like I just need to take the test????? then get certified?????

My boss explained it as "needing 30 hrs. cont. ed then get certified"

He wasn't exactly knowledgeable about how to go about it either.

Thanks for all the info., ELKPARK, I will search out how to get the hours in first.

You need to meet all the requirements to be eligible to test, and then register for the exam. The website I posted has all the info you need. Good luck! :)

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