Cardio to psych change - where to start?

[bluesnurse]

For the last 15 years, I have worked in cardiology in about every role possible. Since becoming an RN/BSN in 2004, I've done telemetry, CCU, and office nursing.

It's a long story -- I fell into cardiology at a young age and I do love it. But I have always been drawn to psych nursing. I *loved* my psych clinicals, love dealing with the psych patients that show up in any specialty. People just seem to inherently trust me as a good listener, and open up to me about all sorts of things.

I've been thinking about going back for my MSN/NP, but I would really like to focus on psych NP/counseling rather than acute care/cardiology, where my experience is.

Any advice on how to make the transition? I work in a very large healthcare system and I will be eligible to transfer in March (currently work 8-5 in an OP clinic and am bored.)

Would it be best to do a year of med-surg first, or is there some other good way to segue into psych? In this part of the US there don't seem to be many options in acute psych care, and I can't afford to take much of a pay cut. Any advice appreciated!