Family Mental health NP> Psychiatric Mental Health NP. Confused about grad school

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Hello!

I am someone with a bachelor's in psychology and have been planning on going into a direct entry (MEPN) program for psychiatric nursing.

My original plan was to be a clinical nurse specialist, but after researching (and a couple of helpful posters here) I've found that the CNS certification is going away by 2015. I also found that the only remaining exam will by the Family Mental Health NP, which is changing it's name to Psychiatric Mental Health NP.

(Source: http://www.nursecredentialing.org/Documents/Certification/APRN-Materials/APRN-CertificationNameChart.pdf )

I am would love any advice, information, or resources anyone has to offer regarding these topics (the changes being made in advanced degree psychiatric nursing).

Particularly, I'm vry interested to figure out what I should do for grad school. Are the PMHNP programs family focused, or are the FMHNP programs changing? I have experience in family mental health, but my heart is an adult psychology.

From the program descriptions I've read, PMHNP sounds pretty great, but again I'm not interested in working with families as a specialty population. I am just a little lost as I recently found out the CNS was going away, and time is of the essence.

I understand I should be asking the graduate schools about this, and am honestly not sure how to go about that either.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

I'm not a PMHNP but I consider myself well-versed on NP issues. With the Consensus Model looming, you don't have much of a choice but enter a Family PMHNP program. All schools will transition to this model sooner or later because ANCC, the only organization with a Psych NP certification exam, will only offer Family PMHNP after 2015. Does that training pigeonhole you to family settings? I don't think it will. Find a good program that will provide you a balanced exposure to all types of Psych environments and/or will allow you extra time in clinicals in the area you're interested in. Nursing is constantly evolving and many of these changes tend to be poorly executed (i.e., the phasing out of Psych CNS). It can be a good thing that Psych Advanced Practice is moving towards a generalist training albeit NP-exclusive. Just think of the mess in the Acute Care and Primary Care, Adult vs Peds mess left for us in the Human Physiology-based NP programs.

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Thank you very much for the response. After everything I've looked at, and the people I've spoke with I believe you are completely correct. Thanks very much for your advice; I'm happy I can be a PMHNP without having to deal with too much child and family psych!!

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