NP

Crookshanks24 · Jun 16, 2020

On 6/13/2020 at 4:50 PM, verene said:
Yes, and unfortunately many of those coming in don't necessarily have a great understanding of what they are getting into with psych or are only wanting the "cushy" psych jobs -- which are actually not as easy to get as a newbie. I'm thankful I did my research before hand and chose a school that has both a good reputation and which sets students some pretty realistic expectations of first jobs.
Hoping some of those going into the field for the money or because "psych is easy" will leave and that will help some of the saturation issues. In the mean time though I worry what it will do to our patients who need people who CARE and who WANT to work in this field, and to PMHNP salaries and reputations.
I'm a new grad as well and I LOVE my job (most days at least... this last week was really, really rough), but I also knew what I was getting into and had fairly reasonable expectations. At my current employer people tend to either last less than a year because they aren't prepared for the population/workload/realities of this setting/population or 5+ years because it actually is a pretty darn good place to work if you like the patient population. It's rather polarizing that way. I'm almost a year in and can pretty easily see myself sticking around several more years.
If you are wiling to relocate I do know of a few places hiring, but the market is definitely dried up with COVID right now.
To the OP: I do make more as an NP than I did as an RN but there is definitely an invisible toll in the weight of responsibility to your patients and to the staff you work with that I don't think many realize comes with the leadership role of NP. You have to WANT the NP role and not just the NP money. On the best days I'd be completely fine doing this job for RN pay. On the worst days... you will completely understand why you can't do this job for money alone as it will never fully compensate the heavy, invisible toll of the work.

What school did you choose? What were your clinical rotations like?

verene, MSN · Jun 18, 2020

On 6/16/2020 at 10:36 AM, Crookshanks24 said:
What school did you choose? What were your clinical rotations like?

Full-time brick and mortar program and public research university. Clinical rotations included: 6 months in peds private practice, 10 months paid internship with VA, and 2 months high-acuity inpatient. Also a few random 1-ff shadow days (e.g. ED consult liaison, substance use treatment program). I think I had close to 1K hours when I graduated. Also program provided placements with vetted preceptors who actually WANTED to precept and were experienced in enough in their practice settings/specialty to provide strong mentoring. Most of my classmates had similar quality of placements to what I had and similar hours at graduation. I worked as RN in psychiatric setting as well during program and was fortunate to work with supportive providers who knew I was in school for PMHNP and provided mentorship and learning opportunities while I was at work as well.