NP Specialties

[PhilGN]

I've been to a bunch of the nursing school websites, and I've seen that you can become a Family Nurse Practitioner, or a Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, etc, but I've looked on a couple of other websites and seen people describe themselves as "Adult NP with a specialty in psychiatry" or "neurology, adult nurse practitioner with a specialty in acute care." I was wondering are these things they actually train and study for, or just fields they've worked in? Can you go to school to become an adult neurology nurse practitioner, and how can an adult NP specialize in psychiatry when I've also seen psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Good question. For instance, I'm an adult health CNS who WORKS in nephrology. However, my certification is adult health care. Many APNs state what specialty they WORK in versus a specialty that they are certified in. Make sense?

There are FNPs who do work in psychiatry but they are FNPs who WORK psychiatry not a mental health nurse practitioner.

[PhilGN]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Are there any restrictions though? I mean I figured a family NP wouldn't be able to do the job a psychiatric and mental health NP could. And are there any programs that actually train you for different work areas like that?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Well, the idea of NP residencies is coming about and I think with that, we will see more "training" in "specialties" for NPs and APNs.

There are some programs that have specialized training like ER or OR but there are no APN certifications in these specialties so the APNs that do these programs still take the same standard certification exams: Adult NP, FNP, etc.