Adding PMHNP degree

Oldmahubbard · Dec 31, 2017

Yes, though I never worked as an ANP. Although the experience was good, had I do do it again, I would not have done the ANP, because I was really interested in Psych. I was just afraid I wouldn't get a job, but I did.

I think people often get multiple credentials, thinking it will give them some type of an edge, but if you don't have work experience in the field, it really doesn't.

elkpark · Dec 31, 2017

FWIW, I work at a large, well-known academic medical center on a service that includes psychiatric residents and medical faculty. We had for a number of years an attending who was double-boarded in psychiatry and internal medicine, and a lot of our psychiatric residents are double- or even triple-board candidates, in psychiatry and family medicine, psychiatry and internal medicine, etc. The double-boarded faculty member used to frequently advise the residents that, based on his own experience, he did not recommend double-boarding; I heard him explain many times that the reality is that there is really no way he has found to combine both specialties in a meaningful way. You end up either practicing in a medical setting in which you also do a little psychiatry (but not more than the other general medical people are doing), or you end up practicing in psychiatry and are better informed about medical "stuff" than the other psychiatry practitioners, but it turns out that doesn't really mean much or make much of a difference. He said that, if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't bother with the double-boarding.