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Discussion

Need some advise!

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I’m currently in my last semester of nursing school and since I’ve been working at an autism center part time for the past year, I Really want to go into pediatric mental health or pediatric psychiatric nursing.

I’ve tried googling the pathways to become this but it seems like it would take 7 years to be certified in both areas (pediatric & psychiatric)? If there is anyone in this field or someone who knows someone in this field, could you point me In the direction y’all took, to be able to pursue this?

 many thanks in advance

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    Are you in the US? If so, you don't need to get certified in these specialties in order to work in them; rather, you just need to pass your NCLEX and apply for jobs in settings that interest you (i.e. residential psych group homes, stand-alone psych hospitals, inpatient psych units within hospitals, etc.)

    You can't become certified in a specialty until after you've gotten experience in that area, and in most settings, certification is optional. Depending on your patient population, you may be eligible to sit for both a peds certification (i.e. your CPN) and a mental health certification after you gain some experience.

    Peds psych is a pretty small niche specialty, so as a new grad you may want to cast a wider net (i.e. also applying to adult psych, general peds, and perhaps even adult med-surg as a backup in case you can't get a psych or peds job). Peds can be a tough specialty to break into because it's so competitive. That said, I think your autism center experience will be a huge asset and should strengthen your application.

    Best of luck!

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