Physician Assistants in psychiatric hospitals?

[shumphrey]

I am thinking about getting a BSN as a second degree. My original plans were to get a PhD in clinical psychology but I do not want to commit that much time to school. I just started looking into physicians assistants and I wanted to know if they are in the psychiatric setting? I would assume that RNs take the place of PA in psychiatric hospitals. Is this true? I currently work in two psychiatric hospitals and the only staff that they have are doctors, RN's, MHA, and Social Workers.

[mstone88]

My father is a Physicians Assistant and worked at the Utah State Psych Hospital for 20 years. Although I suppose it is possible that the trend has changed.

[HappySH]

I work for a State psychiatric facility ( NewYork) No PA's here.. Jus RN's, MD, Social workers and psychologists

[diawc]

we have hired quite a few where I work. We use Rns and NP/PAs, they help the psychiatrists tremendously

[elkpark]

I've known of some psych units that used PAs, but the PAs only dealt with physical problems, admission H&Ps, etc. They could not do psych evals or deal with psych medications. I don't know if that was a regulatory requirement or just the preference of the psychiatrists with whom they worked. I've known of psych units that used FNPs with the same limitations -- they were there strictly to keep the psychiatrists from having to deal with people's medical issues.

I'm sure there are lots of different models out there, though.