Mental1

I am an adult PMHNP. In my practice we have in my opinion to many child/providers and only 2 adult providers. So all the child/adolescent cases go to them even though I can see 13 and up. That's fine with me because I have no interest in treating kids and dealing with their families, give me the severe/persistantly mentally ill anyday! Lol

I just graduated. While I am comfortable in the inpatient setting, to be honest I didnt want to work the ridiculous hours that comes along with that. I starting a new position in an outpatient community mental health center on Monday. I am interested in severe and persistant mentally ill so that is where I am going to spend much of my time. My instructor told us the first day of our program that no one is going to pay 90k plus to therapy. If we want to do that to go to school to be a therapist. She said we will be doing intial assessments, and medication management visits with maybe a few minutes to do supportive psychotherapy. That is what I have found in the midwest. We have alot of therapists but almost no one to do the medication piece. So if that sounds interesting to you go for ot. Also one does have to maintain a bit of vigilance in the inpaitent setting as that is where just as in a med surg unit you find the sickest. You have to be a danger to your self or others to be an inpatient (so that being said) you do have to make sure you are always between the patient and the door just in case. BUt I chose to go to the state mental hospital for my clinicals not becasue I had to. There were many students in my class who never sat foot in an inpatient unit. Talk to an instructor of the pmhnp program about your concerns before making your decision.

Be careful with Epocrates and your blackberry. I have had epocrates as an nP student for the past 2 years and used it as an RN for another 1 year prior to that. Epocrates is a very large app and it never shuts down. So what happens is it drains your battery. The app is also so large, and it only lets you save a portion of it to your memory card. I had it on 3 BB curves and it burned them out. So I upgraded to a Tour. I am on my 4th tour now. It still doesn't work correctly because of Epocrates. I am being forced to get rid of BB as Verizon will no longer replace because my problems are from Epoc. Which BB do you have? You may want to look around for another app. I downloaded the monthly prescribing newsletter for free from BB app world and am canceling Epoc. I am sick of the problems it causes.

I am an Adult Psych NP; I just passed the exam and will start my new job in few weeks. I live in Iowa.

Check out the job board on the APNA website, Monster, or the NHSC.gov You should be able to get some good leads that way. I had offers from clinical rotations, other agencies in town that applied to that did not have openings advertised, and from the above sources and recruiters.

my instructor told us with the need here (midwest) not to take anything less than 90k. I would assume that would apply (compensation wise) to the Boston area.

I have even had one headhunter try to get to me through my husband by offering him his dream job in operations a power plant in order to persuade me into moving and accepting a job I don't really want. Anywhere in midwest is in high need for psych np's. Anyone close to graduation put a resume up on Monster, you will more calls in 24 hours than you can handle!

I was asked to do something similiar. But, I was told that since I was certifiable I should change my badge to PMHNP-c. Now that I have passed my exam, I have changed it again to PMHNP-BC, because now I am certified and not certifiable.

It took about 6 weeks to get my okay to test. I took my PMHNP exam last week and passed. But I know of other people in my class who sent their paperwork in at the middle to end of June and are still waiting. Good Luck.

Wow that was a very interesting link. As a new psych np grad in Iowa, I knew some of the states boarding me were very restrictive compared with Iowa law. Iowa was number 3 on one list and 12 on another. Thanks for the links.

http://nursing.missouri.edu/academics/master-of-science/areas/mental-health-fmhnp.php http://www.unmc.edu/nursing/254.htm I know of several in the midwest, I am not sure where you are though. There are ones that are almost completely online through Missouri (the first link above) and one at SDSU, and University of Nebraska Medical Center (the second link). I do know that many have gotten one degree then gone back for a post masters certificate in psych as another way of doing it. Good Luck

Yes I have seen delirium many times in the elderly. UTI's are I believe the number one cause for delirium in the elderly. Dehyratation and altered glucose and decreased electrolytes can also cause delirium. I don't understand why the assisted living would turn him away simply because of a UTI caused delirium since a simple course of antibiotics should treat that and the psychosis should disappear. Fight for him to stay in his nice place!!!

My schools psych np program was brand new, and there was only 2 choices in the entire area for me attend. But I have been trying to find what the over success rate on the Psych Np exam is and havent been able to find any statistics.

Thanks, I have taken the Barkley review course, bought the practice questions from ANCC and another book of practice questions. I was just curious if anyone new more about the test or if there was something else besides the ancc review or Barkley?

I am supposed to take my psych np boards from the ANCC in a few weeks. Has anyone taken this exam in the last several months that can give some advice or direction. I have a job offer that is hanging in the balance of my passing on the first try. Help:uhoh3: