"Residency" before completed certification

[KitRN33]

Hello, I am a recently graduated PMHNP student and a preceptor from my last semester of school has offered me a "residency" wherein I will be doing all the things I did while precepting, but I will get paid. He has offered this as a bridge until I take my certification exam and my credentialing is complete. I am not prescribing medications nor diagnosing patients, but I would be meeting with patients, and compiling a note of the session which he would then sign off on. He has an independent practice and is a board-certified PHMNP with collaborating physicians. Does anyone know if this would be legal/allowed??

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I am not a PMHNP so I am not familiar with how Psych Notes are written. However, in traditional Evaluation and Management notes that I am used to, a provider can sign off on a note written by a non-provider (such as a scribe) as long as the exam and medical decision making elements are added or personally written by the provider. So technically, he is hiring you as a scribe it seems like.

I would think about this role as a transitional role. You would not want to do this once you are certified and credentialed. What is your time frame for that to happen? Will he hire you as one of his staff PMHNP's? How is the pay like? is it worth it or would you rather stay in your role as an RN? The residencies and fellowship I'm familiar with (albeit not in Psych) are at least 1 year in length and only admits NP's who are fully certified and credentialed. It should not be called a residency and I do appreciate your use of quotation marks.

[verene, MSN]

Essentially it sounds like he is offering extra clinical hours with pay - it is likely legal, but I'd ask for more details around expectations - what is the level of supervision? What will you actually be doing (scribing, seeing patients, acting as assistant)? What is the job title you would be operating under? Does he anticipate this leading to employment once credentialed? Is there a contractual obligation to for X time as PMHNP if accepting this? What would the contract for long-term employment look like? How long does he anticipate "residency" to last? Will there be on-going education along side work?