PMHNP and Health Coach?

[UnicoRN93]

I am currently entering my second year as a med-surg nurse. I am wanting to go back to school and was considering getting a Health Coach certificate as a start into holistic therapies. I have an interest in PMHNP, but have no desire to sit at a desk and pass out pills all day. I am more interested in therapy. We get a fair amount of psych patients on my floor but they are usually chronically ill, not wanting to get better. I want to try to get into pediatric/family PMHNP and integrate health coaching to make it more of a holistic approach. Any thoughts, should I go for both degrees?

[Oldmahubbard]

You don't want to pass out pills all day, and I don't blame you. It is not terribly thrilling work, and most of the patients do not get better.

Unfortunately, that is what PMHNPs are basically paid to do. So I am not sure how a PMHNP degree would help further your goals.

You are hoping to serve a relatively high functioning population, the "worried well", as a health coach. These services would not be covered by insurance to my knowledge, so the clients would also have to be fairly affluent.

The issue is that the patients served by PMHNPs, and those served by health coaches are largely at opposite ends of the economic and functional spectrum.

There may be a group of people in the middle who might be interested in the services of a health coach who is an RN. I don't know the market for this in your area. And I know nothing about health coaching education or costs.

My suggestion is to first market yourself as an RN health coach, get the lay of the land, see the market for yourself. Over time, several years, it will be obvious whether becoming a PMHNP within that framework will be viable.

I have heard of PMHNPs in some parts of the country who only take cash, and have the luxury of tailoring their business to their own philosophies.

I have heard of this, but I don't personally know any.

I imagine this job market would be super competitive, because it sounds like a very sweet job.

I suggest a lot more research before going into a PMHNP program.

[BirkieGirl]

You definitely want to tap into JulesA and zenman, they are the resident PMHNPs that I have looked to for advice on the field. I am under the impression that PMHNPs don't do therapy much, instead they are doing med management of the patients. I THINK. I'm not a PMHNP, but I believe that's a lot of the info that I remember getting when I had questions about the field.

[Madelina]

This is me, but I'm not a nurse. I want to incorporate health coaching into my PMHNP practice and I am also more interested in therapy. I am wondering if I should not pursue nursing and pursue therapy and health coaching instead? What did you decide?