NurseNotRatched

Congratulations on your senior year of college. I am a 2nd year graduate student in an MSN program for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (May 2019). The route you take ultimately depends on a combination of how much money you want to make or how much therapy you'd like to incorporate in your professional career. PMHNPs utilize both non-pharmaceutical psychotherapeutic modalities as well as medication to treat people. Upon finishing a psych NP program, you operate in BOTH roles as a therapist and a prescribing clinician; however, the focus of the PMHNP and how you get the MOST out of your degree financially is medication management. You cannot bill for both medication management and psychotherapy at the same time so you essentially have to choose...and unfortunately, meds pay more so that is basically what you'll end up doing 95% of the time. In my outpatient clinical site, the PMHNP sees the patients for med management and initial consults and the patient then has to schedule separate appointments to see one of the therapists in the office. Some of my school faculty have their own practices and offer therapy modalities but they are seasoned, make their own schedules, and offer therapy sessions on certain days or through telepsych. They have also mastered billing and coding. If you want to keep your options open and want to do therapy with the option of being able to prescribe and do not mind making less money, I would go with a psych mental health NP program. As far as cost is concerned, state university programs offer the best in tuition but there are reasonably priced pmhnp programs available considering we've been told the *minimum* starting pay for new grad pmhnps should be no less than $110,000 per year.

I'm taking the History taking & Physical Assessment class. I thought it'd be beneficial for me because I work in a nontraditional role where I do not do h to t assessments. My book just came today & I'll be present for the skillscheck off.

I received 2 emails...1 regarding Pre-O and the itinerary for Monday and a few days later, I got one directly from the program chair from my selected specialty. I can forward info to you.

Sorry...Edited because the question wasn't directed to me

I am in a similar situation. I've worked around methadone & subutex/suboxone for over 3 years but I'll be starting a PMHNP program in fall. Thankfully the program I'll be starting counted my substance abuse as experience for the 6 month psych requirement (it's certainly related). Although I'm confident in my ability to do well, I know I need to become more familiar with psych meds so I landed a PRN job last month at a behavioral health hospital. The unit where I'll be most of the time is for dual diagnosis & detox. I only have to work 24 hours per month to remain on PRN status so I definitely plan on keeping the job throughout NP school.

I applied for full time matriculation.

NCnurse17 & Spresley: I'm sorry to hear. Do you have an alternate option or will you reapply?

Hopefully you won't have to be in suspense for too much longer. I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to their method. My completed application wasn't submitted until the day before the due date although I had started submitting documents as early as November. My last name starts with "J." Best wishes!

I received an email mid morning today telling me a decision has been made. I was accepted & I applied for the PMHNP program for UNC.

@SopranoKris Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to check that program out

@NCnurse17 @tinamayrn I also applied to UNC for MSN-NP (PMHNP) fall 2017. I placed all my eggs in one basket as I am only really interested in Mental Health and it's the only program in the state of NC. Any other school out of the state would not be affordable for me and although I'm hopeful, I have prepared for my next steps if I'm not offered acceptance. I attended an information session in the fall and they were able to answer a lot of my questions about program expectations, application process, etc. One of my references contacted me and said she was questioned about her letter because when it was submitted, it was scrambled . Thankfully, they allowed her to resubmit the reference letter post deadline and they repeatedly expressed that it would in no way effect my application. Good luck!

To add to the previous poster, if you ARE able to find a mostly online ADN program you really want to make sure that it is reputable and accredited not only by your state BON but also CCNE or NLNAC accredited. Also you may want to check with other people who have went to such a program and how it is received. I had an interview at a hospital last year and was told flat out by nurse recruitment during my interview that they hire from all area schools close to me except ECPI because they felt those students were lacking in clinical hours and instruction.

Sorry I can't give you specifics because I don't know the exact number myself. All I've been told is that it is "more" than hospitals pay. I will be graduating in May and am interested to know this information myself as I am not that excited about acute care.

Baptist Hospital just hired December 2011 grads for their journeys program. There is no listing yet for Spring 2012 grads. Also, Randolph Hospital is hiring new graduates (today is actually the last date to have application materials submitted).

Happy New Year! I'm entering my final year of nursing school and got my ACLS certification this past July. It would have probably made more sense to wait until after I graduated and got a job so that the employer would pay for it if I am going to be working in an ED or critical care, but I just wanted to get a leg up on the competition. So, of course, you can get it now if you're willing to pay for it yourself.