post-masters PMHNP

[kelseykelsey4]

Hi all of my nursing experience has been in a PICU. I just graduated in May from an acute care pediatric nurse practitioner program and my clinical rotations were in a PICU, pediatric cardiac ICU, a pediatric stepdown unit and a pediatric neurosurgical outpatient clinic.

I am actually thinking of getting my post-masters certificate in PMHNP. I like the hours/schedule, pay, being able to provide therapy and medication management.

However in the meantime should I just take a job in a PICU? Or should I take a job on an inpatient psychiatric unit? I would not be able to do any of the therapy part (which is what I am actually interested in). It would only be medical management. I would still have the crappy inpatient schedule and pay. I am not really sure what to do. I like the idea of being an outpatient PMHNP which I can't do yet without the post-masters certificate. But in the meantime I like the idea of being a PICU provider more than an inpatient psychiatric medical NP.

Thanks for your advice.

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

13 hours ago, kelseykelsey4 said:

I would not be able to do any of the therapy part (which is what I am actually interested in). It would only be medical management.

The majority of what PMHNPs do is med management, not therapy. Additionally, PMHNP programs don't provide adequate training do in-depth psychotherapy, although they are legally allowed to do so. Furthermore, employers hire PMHNPs to do med management because they bill more for med eval and can refer therapy sessions to lower-cost professionals such as LCSW, counselors, PsyD, or psychologists, who also have more expertise carrying out psychotherapy. However, some private practices will let PMHNPs spend more time on therapy or if you own your own practice and ok with low pay.

If your goal is PMHNP, doing medical management in a psychiatric unit makes more sense because you'll be managing patients who are on both psych and non-psych meds. You'll also get more exposure and see whether you really like this specialty. On the downside, if you decide that you don't like psych and want to go back to PICU, it might be harder because you don't have that experience, but I'm not sure about that.