Why is Psych NP not as popular of a choice?

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

Hi! I'm brand new to the forum and interested in becoming a NP as a second career in my life. I've always loved psychology and wanted to become either a social worker or mental health counselor, but family pressure directed me else where.

I'm been reading many posts on here and it seems like there is a huge demand for PMHNPs...which leads me to believe that many students do not want to specialize in Psych NP in the first place. Why is that? Just curious...

Also, unlike PA programs where you can switch specialities at any time without having to go back to school to get additional training, in NP programs it appears that you specialize in 1 thing and that's it. Given the fact that I come from a non-health related career field, how can I determine which NP specialty that I want to go in? Do NP programs make you go on several different specialty rotations before you get to choose what you want to specialize in?

By the sheer fact that I've always love psychology, loved analyzing people, and read many psychology books and magazines for the joy of it, I believe that I would love to pursue a career as a Psychiatric NP....but how do I know for sure if this is the best fit for me unless I'm given a chance to test out the other specialities? Any thoughts and insights? :)

This is a great job if you like studying human behavior. I'm in a community mental health center so most of my patients, at the worse, will have some mild hallucinations, occasionally a manic patient. I have a great staff helping me, get to sit down most of the day and chat with people, an hour for lunch, free housing, car allowance, 6 figure income, etc. You can't beat this with a stick!:yeah:

And I think this is why those of us that are interested in psych are interested in psych. ;)

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Specializes in psych/addictions/liaison.
.......get to sit down most of the day and chat with people, an hour for lunch, free housing, car allowance, 6 figure income, etc. You can't beat this with a stick!:yeah:

Send me a Green Card - I'm on my way!!!!!!!!

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Sssshhhh! Don't let the secret out...

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Hi zenman. I'm a former educator and heading back to school this spring to start pre-reqs for nursing. I'm really interested in pursuing a career as a psych NP but am worried that the job will just be medication management (like you, I'm interested in meditation and alternative therapies, though I recognize that social workers are underpaid and psychology seems to be pretty saturated). Could we set up a time to chat so I can learn about the field from your perspective?

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Friend,

You just dug up a 5 year-old thread. You would have better luck sending him a PM if you want a direct response.

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