Pre-Nursing Student questions about PMHNP

[ipipduh]

Hello, I understand that there have been multiple perspectives shared about being various versions of mental health professionals in comparison to a psychiatric mental health NP, however my goals are fairly specific and I would like to hear from professionals and other students who may be able to help validate or offer new perspectives about my future role.

I am finishing up undergrad and I am interested in becoming a PMHNP. The following things I would like to be able to do in my career is:

Provide therapy

Provide RX for where it is appropriate for mental health

Design wellness programs that include nutrition as an integral part of treatment and healing

Include other forms of therapy (via additional certifications) such as: trauma sensitive yoga, holistic therapy, expressive therapies, and so on

All of these things are fairly important for me, and I did not choose the psychologist route as I would not be able to prescribe or create and implement wellness programs privately or in the public health sector due to non-licensure to do so. Some PMHNP's are saying that therapy does not happen as a PMHNP and I would like to hear from other students or professionals who can help validate or otherwise provide information that would allow me to see the possibility as PMHNP as a powerful direction to help others.

Thank you so much!

Philippa

[Allie8691]

I can tell you that in the community mental health center I worked at, which was owned by a major multi-state hospital, social workers (LSW) and LPCs or M.Eds were allowed to do this. With the exception of writing prescriptions for medications.

If your main goal is to complete therapy and create holistic nutritional programming--you could do that with an M. Ed or LSW. All of our training department was made up of M. Ed, there was not one nurse! It was insane. Nurses were needed, but the company was cheap. If you can job shadow I would, nursing has a lot more opportunities than an LSW/ LPC/ M. Ed will give you. Opportunity to help patients and opportunity for your career. But that's just my opinion. Good luck.

[elkpark]

Psych NP education and practice is focused on diagnosis and medication management, same as psychiatrists. The psych NP programs tack on a therapy class or two in order to differentiate the curricula from FNP curricula (), but they do not really prepare people to be psychotherapists, because it is not cost-effective to pay someone who could be writing scrips to be doing therapy (the money is in writing scrips). If you are in a private practice, esp. your own, independent private practice, you can do whatever you want. However, you'll find that you'll need to seek out further education independently if you want to be any good as a therapist. If you're working for an employer, your practice will most likely be focused on medication management.

[Zyprexa_Ho]

Elkpark is right. The main purpose of being a PMHNP is to be able to diagnose and prescribe for mental health conditions. However, it would still be in your scope to do psychotherapy. It's pretty much the same as it is with psychiatrists. They can do therapy, but they mainly focus on diagnosing and prescribing as those two things are the highest skills in mental health services. That is not to say that they can't do therapy, it's just that they can do things that require more training than therapy, so they focus on those things

[matthdrn]

PMHNP you will not be educated enough to provide therapy in my opinion. You will need to go back to obtain certifications. I do believe as PMHNP we can utilize manual based therapies. Employers are mainly interested in your diagnosis and prescriptive authority.

If you want to start your own practice I would highly recommend getting a certificate/training in whatever approach you are interested in utilizing.

[verene, MSN]

As a PMHNP you will receive limited education in psychotherapy - the focus of most programs is diagnosis and medication management. This is also what most practices and organizations will want you to do for them. For therapy it is far easier for most organizations to pay a LMHP with far more training in this area and a lower cost to them to conduct psychotherapy.

That being said if you work in private practice - either your own or partnership where you are more free to do your own thing psychotherapy is definitely an option if you gain the additional education to provide it. One of my faculty advisers had her own independent practice for 20+ years and had a mix of med management and psychotherapy clients. I think designing wellness programs could also be possible for a PMHNP but once again it's outside the general expectation for the role and thus less likely to be allowed or advocated for by an employer. It is something you will have to work for on your own and with like minded professional contacts.

[Zyprexa_Ho]

PMHNP you will not be educated enough to provide therapy

Nope! Psychotherapy is in the scope of practice for PMHNPs

[elkpark]

Nope! Psychotherapy is in the scope of practice for PMHNPs

The fact that it is legally within the scope of practice doesn't mean that you get enough education in school to be good at it.

[Zyprexa_Ho]

The fact that it is legally within the scope of practice doesn't mean that you get enough education in school to be good at it.

Yes, but the comment posted was referring to not being able to provide therapy, not *high quality* therapy