Schooling Needed for Psychiatric Nursing

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Okay, so I am a high school senior and I have been considering going into psychiatric nursing for awhile now and I was wondering the schooling required for it. Thanks! :)

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Welcome to allnurses! :balloons:

To get started as a psychiatric nurse, you would just need to complete a basic nursing education program and get licensed as an LPN or RN. If you chose to go farther with your education, that would be your choice.

The US educates nurses as generalists, so your education would cover all aspects of nursing, not just psychiatric nursing. You would have a wide range of career possibilities, not limited to psychiatric nursing.

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Go straight for your RN, preferably BSN (though not mandatory). LPN's aren't used in most acute psych units that I'm aware of. Maybe in longer-term freestanding psych hospitals.

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Go straight for your RN, preferably BSN (though not mandatory). LPN's aren't used in most acute psych units that I'm aware of. Maybe in longer-term freestanding psych hospitals.

That depends largely on the geographic area. There are many parts of the country where LPN are used commonly/regularly in acute psych settings. Overall, I would always recommend people become RNs rather than LPNs if it's at all possible for them to do so, but that's a v. personal choice.

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