PMHNP Additional Certifications and Education

Oldmahubbard · May 17, 2018

My opinion- the value of the DNP will depend on your age. Young people (under 40) will eventually need it to remain competitive. I am not doing it personally, as there is no financial incentive at my very advanced age, haha, and the coursework doesn't seem to enhance clinical competencies.

The most rewarding thing was working in Forensics and appearing in court as an expert witness for the state. I obtained many court orders over the years for treatment over objection.

The prison population has a high percentage of severe and persistent mental illness. Many inmates do not accept their diagnosis and become a danger to themselves as a result of psychosis.

After obtaining the order, the patient received injections, although many of them did accept oral medications.I saw a number of dramatic recoveries.

The most persistent challenged has been arriving at the correct diagnosis. This can be extremely difficult, especially in older patients, previously misdiagnosed people, or people with several confounding conditions, ie traumatic brain injury, etc.

Theofficenh · May 17, 2018

Thank you so much! I appreciate the insight.

SDStudent1 · May 25, 2018

I am not finished with my PMHNP program yet (1 yr left) so take it for what it is worth. I am in a masters program that also offers a DNP or PhD option. Instead of getting a doctorate, I plan to continue on and get a cert in FNP shortly after finishing my PMHNP. I feel being able to identify both medical and psychiatric involvement would be valuable. In my area, because I will already have finished the Advanced patho, pharm and assessment it would take less than a year to do this. I am keeping an open mind about going back to get a PhD in the future if I want to get into research or teaching but do not see any value in doing so otherwise, especially if you mainly want to do private practice. Just my thoughts, open to suggestion though.

wayemika · Jun 30, 2018

I am not finished with my PMHNP program yet (1 yr left) so take it for what it is worth. I am in a masters program that also offers a DNP or PhD option. Instead of getting a doctorate, I plan to continue on and get a cert in FNP shortly after finishing my PMHNP. I feel being able to identify both medical and psychiatric involvement would be valuable. In my area, because I will already have finished the Advanced patho, pharm and assessment it would take less than a year to do this. I am keeping an open mind about going back to get a PhD in the future if I want to get into research or teaching but do not see any value in doing so otherwise, especially if you mainly want to do private practice. Just my thoughts, open to suggestion though.

Im in the same situation as you. finishing the PMHNP post masters next year in June and I also would only do a PhD if i want to teach. (i fell like they are trying to force the DNP with fear). a additional certification in FNP sounds good. Im working on learning Spanish, french and Arabic as they are all spoken in my area so i will stay competitive.

wayemika · Jul 16, 2018

I will say I thought bout getting my DNP/PhD and with the program im in for NP its made me not want to return anymore after this. Im not going back to school. Im going to get certified in Spanish, Arabic and French because that seems to be the needs in my area. Negative to the DNP

umbdude, MSN, APRN · Jul 16, 2018

PMHNP student here. No desire to get a DNP. I take a look at the curriculum and courses and they just don't excite me. In fact, they seem utterly boring and unnecessary.

For me, I will get the CARN-AP cert immediately. Aside from that, if I want to learn something new I would simply put myself into a different work setting. There is so much to learn in psych (geriatrics, forensics, in/out- patient, emergency psych, consult liaison etc.) that I think if you put yourself into a different job setting you'll learn far more than just getting certs.

Oldmahubbard · Jul 16, 2018

From having worked private practice, Community Mental health Clinic, Forensics, and geriatrics/LTC, I can tell you that each psych population is different and offers new challenges.