PMHNP jobs

verene, MSN · Feb 16, 2020

There is a shortage of providers in many areas - which can also lead to BOTH the combination of long wait times AND to lack of jobs being advertised - if an organization has had an open position for a year - they may take down the job listing even if the job has not been filled. I know a few organizations who don't post jobs online at all - but if you call HR with interest will be more than happy to talk to a provider and offer interview.

Another factor is insurance - not all insurances pay reasonable reimbursement rates to psychiatric providers or are VERY slow about getting payment back to provider. Particularly for those in private practice it can be a poor financial decision to work with these insurance companies. Meaning the pool of providers who may accept them is small, and thus long wait times for patients on those insurances.

Finally, sometimes organizations and practices are full - their panels are full, their beds are full, and they can't take more patients on until they are either able to hire more providers or can discharge patients, and fixing the system issues that cause this take time.

The hospital I work for is currently at capacity for psych beds - as in 100% full - we don't have room for more patients full-stop. We can push our community partners to do more - but many of them are also completely full or do not have adequate staff or resources to take on more patients to move patients out of the hospital or avoid hospitalization all together. If you were to look at our open jobs you wouldn't see positions for PMHNP/Psychiatrists listed right now despite us having a 70+ person wait list for bed space, because we are technically staffed appropriately for the number of beds we do have. This isn't because we don't need more - but because even with funding for additional space/beds it takes time to build new infrastructure and then to hire staff (at all levels) to fill that infrastructure.

In short - mental health is a very, very broken system.