Concern/question about PMHNP and Clinical Psychologists

[Love&Care]

Hi, I have two areas of NP interest right now: cardiology and psych. I'm a little more skeptical about Psych for one reason.

If clinical psychologists gain more prescriptive rights in the future, what could this mean for PMHNPs (and psychiatrists for that matter)? Will there still continue to be a higher demand for the psych NP over the prescribing psychologist? Like I said, I'm undecided between both right now and I've always had a love for psych. I didn't have an interest in cardiology until nursing school. However, I don't want to spend tons of money on schooling if I won't be able to find a job. Do you think prescribing psychologists could possibly phase out PMHNPs (and psychiatrists) since there are so many psychologists? Or do you think PMHNPs will be more preferred over psychologists due to their medical/nursing background?

I know psychologists do mostly therapy and research while PMHNPs will do more med management like a psychiatrist, but they can do therapy. However, if psychologists are given prescription rights, would there really be any difference between the PMHNP and psychologist?

I know there is a HUGE shortage of psychiatrists and there will continue to be, so this may open up more opportunities for the Psych NP. However, it leaves me wondering if psychologists will use this as an excuse to gain more prescription rights.

So can anybody give me any insight into this so called "turf war" in the mental health field? Also, would you recommend me pursuing this field, given the turf going on?

[Love&Care]

Also, what is the big difference between the psych NP and a prescribing psychologist? I would assume that in general, they can both treat the patient in the same way: med and/or psychotherapy.

I meant to say, what is the difference between psych NP and a psychiatrist. I was still thinking about the psychologist topic when I typed that.

[Applehead]

Interesting thought. Frankly, this is something I haven't thought about and I don't think it is even worth worrying about. Psych Nps/psychiatrists and psychologists are many moons apart from each other. I think PMHNPs have a much more promising future than psychologists do in this current day. It is also a fairly new specialty and still has a lot of room to grow. The psychologist market is so overly saturated it's unbelievable, there are just simply no jobs. As far as prescribing goes, I think it will be a significant amount of time before psychologists can win over these rights (I'm talking years: not 10, not 20, but more. It took them 30 years to get it passed in just 2 states). Even if they do gain rights, they mostly work in their own independent practices at much more expensive rates than the PsychNP. Also, their primary form of treating is and always will be psychotherapy. If they need complete medication management of a client, they'll refer to the healthcare professional. Overall, the psychNP is a healthcare provider with physical assessment skills and the ability to prescribe other medications outside of psychotropics. Nursing care services in general are in very high demand and they always will be. They can monitor physical problems as well as mental problems. In short, PMHNPs offer more services for a smaller price than the psychologist. Both psychologists' and psychiatrists' services are very expensive.

Also, to my knowledge, PMHNP is one of the highest paying NP specialties with salaries starting between 85-90k. Definitely stick with the NP route. Clinical psychology is a long, expensive road and in my opinion it doesn't pay off in the end. If a psychologist decides to go through all of that schooling just to gain prescription rights, then they were better off going to the MD or NP route to begin with.