Men's Health NP Specialty

[guest769224]

I am curious if a Men's Health NP specialty will ever be offered in the future.

I know we have the Women's Health NP and that women have more complex issues necessitating that sub-specialty, but what are the chances a MHNP would transpire?

Has it ever been proposed? Would there be enough need?

I tried searching the forum and only found a single thread addressing the topic.

Has the ANCC, or any other governing body voiced anything about this?

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

The Consensus Model is the authoritative document in deciding which NP specializations exist. The document was last updated in 2008 and the plan is for full implementation of its provisions by 2015. From an accreditation, certification, and education standpoint, the provisions are pretty much realized now but licensure requirements are still up to individual state BON's to decide on based on state legislation.

The "Model" identifies a core group of NP specializations: FNP, AGNP, AGACNP, PNP, PNPAC, WHNP, NNP, and PMHNP. However, it doesn't discourage the creation of subspecialties underneath each core NP specialty as long as the core competencies are upheld. For instance, an FNP or AGNP program can offer a subspecialty in Men's Health with additional clinical content but the program must make sure the core content for FNP and AGNP does not get compromised.

I think some schools may be interested in offering additional content for a subspecialty as the need and/or availability of faculty experts arise. In the meantime, I think the best way to approach this if you are interested in this subspecialty is to look for particular schools that have enough faculty on their roster who have expertise on this field to get a good match with your interests and allow you enough exposure to the field.

[guest769224]

Thanks a ton Juan, you're a wealth of knowledge.

[sfalumberjack007]

Men typically do not have the complex issues women have, thus there is really no need for a Men's Health NP. In my opinion, they need to do away with all of these specialties and just make a "GENERAL" Nurse Practitioner.

[nursejl1]

I agree with sfalumberjack007! They really do need to get away with all those subspecialties and work on making things more standardized… it's just unorganized with the way it is right now, and it really isn't necessary for it to be that way.

As far as men's health, that usually fall under urology.

[scubadude]

I don't see a specialty such as this happening anytime soon but what do I really know. While much of the stuff is general practice other areas such as TRT and ED do require a much more delicate balancing act with some of the newer treatment modalities. Especially getting into TRT that is advertised everywhere one really needs a deeper understanding of hormone balance such as E2 etc. Not a particularly difficult subject to learn, just deeper than what is taught in some NP programs.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I don't see a specialty such as this happening anytime soon but what do I really know. While much of the stuff is general practice other areas such as TRT and ED do require a much more delicate balancing act with some of the newer treatment modalities. Especially getting into TRT that is advertised everywhere one really needs a deeper understanding of hormone balance such as E2 etc. Not a particularly difficult subject to learn, just deeper than what is taught in some NP programs.

I agree that as NP's push for more independence, there should me more sophistication and structure in our training. I am in favor of a generalist NP base training with an option to pursue structured specialty residencies or fellowships. Unfortunately, that's not how our profession started out and it is hard to undo what is already a disjointed unrealistic system that now exist.