OK so tell me about Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Certification...

[stephvrn]

I am currently working home health and our agency is asking if I will take this test to become certified. We need at least one nurse certified so we can admit psych pt's. Is the test hard? Does it really mean anything in the job field?

I LOVED psych in nursing school, but loved OB a little more.

thanks in advance.

Steph

[elkpark]

There's more to it than just "taking the test." You have to have at least 2,000 hours of clinical practice in psych nursing and at least 30 contact hours of continuing education related to psych nursing within the last three years in order to be eligible to write the exam. The point of the certification is to document that you are competent in your specialty.

When I took the exam many years ago, it was v. difficult. I had been a full-time psych nurse for two years and had put a lot of effort into preparing for the exam, and there was still stuff on the exam I had never even heard of ...

Here is the ANCC website, which has all the info: http://www.nursingworld.org/ancc/index.html

Is anyone in your agency actually an experienced psych nurse? (The way you worded your post, it sounds like you are not.) If the agency wants to make more money by admitting psych patients, maybe they should hire some psych nurses ...

[wam79]

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association has info related to certificationon their web site http://www.apna.org like the previous reply stated there is a lot more than taking the test. When I took the test I had been working in Psych for 8 years. The test is not easy. If your agency wants to take psych cases they should hire psych nurses.