PHMNP wants to be Acute Care NP as well

[MarshaRabbit]

Hi y'all thanks for checking out my post!

I am currently in nursing school- it's a bridged (accelerated) program in which people from a non-nursing background get an MSN. I am currently in my first year, where they give us RN training. Next year, I will begin my specialty training as a PMHNP.

Increasingly, I am very interested in acute care. I have been considering getting dual certification. I have asked a few professors and some of the DNP students as well and have gotten nothing but encouraging responses.

I am wondering first: Are their any acute care NPs reading this who are also Psych NPs?

I would have to get a post-master's certificate for acute care.

Any thoughts?

One thing I've been wondering about is how I would be able to work in both settings at the same time, as both careers seem rather demanding.

I love psych and feel like I am most suited for this specialty. I have a BS in psychology and feel that my personality type is compatible with the role of a psych NP.

Acute care is extremely interesting to me, and I feel as though I would be fulfilled and dedicated in an acute care setting. However, I feel that this position is less compatible with me, as I have a slow processing time. I would like to take my time getting training as an acute care nurse, and hope to one day work as an RN in an ED first.

Any thoughts would be very appreciated, from anybody who has an opinion or feels they have something to add to the conversation.

Thanks in advance to all you wonderful nurses who support us students in our journey!

[SaintlyJ]

Hey MarshaRabbit-

Is it possible for you to switch specialties since you are still in your Entry RN portion of your program? My current school offers a similar Direct-Entry Nursing program, and I know of a couple people that actually switched over to Acute Care from a different specialty right after their GEPN year (One even went from pediatric primary care to Adult-Gero Acute Care. Talk about pulling a 180!) Or are the administrators at your school telling you that you're unable to do so?

I think it's a cool idea to be both Acute and Psych, but I really can't imagine a position where you would actively use both licenses. A Psych ED perhaps? If you were to pursue both of these licenses, then my suggestion might be to look into getting the Acute Care cert first. I have a good friend who is in the Acute Care specialty, and you get pretty deep into knowledge of patho, labs, diagnostic tests, invasive procedures, etc, and I think it might be hard to be thrust into that environment for a post-masters after working in a psychiatric NP position. Therefore, it might actually be easier to get a PHMNP post-masters cert after cutting your teeth in an acute care setting.

[MarshaRabbit]

Saintly J,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my query.

I think you are absolutely right, pretty much about the whole thing. Thankfully I still have some time to decide if I want to switch.

Logically speaking, it absolutely makes sense for me to get an acute certification first, and then go back for psych if I wanted to expand, for the reasons you already mentioned.

I'm still trying to figure it out. I have recently applied for a Mental Health Specialist position at the local psychiatric hospital, and think there is at least a decent chance I will be hired (prn). I hope working there will shed some light as to if that's really what I want to do for a living.

I've never in my life been unsure about my career path, so this is an altogether new, exciting, and scary situation for me.

There wouldn't be many positions in which I could actively utilize both, but I figured I could have 2 jobs, with at least one of them being part time.

Thank you again for clarifying things for me. I kind of suspected what you told me (as far as why it makes sense to do acute first) but I hadn't articulated them as clearly as you were able to do for me.

You're awesome :)