Will I have trouble finding a psych NP job without medsurg experience?

MentalKlarity, BSN, NP · Jun 22, 2021

It's okay to go without experience if your school is a high enough standard that future employers know you likely learned what you needed from school. Likewise, you can somewhat overcome a poor school with lots of experience.

No experience and a poor school? Absolutely not, and finding a job would be hard. So if you're at a for profit program (Walden, Chamberlain, Phoenix, etc) you should either finish the NP elsewhere or plan to stop and get RN experience. Many employers know those schools have almost no entry standards and have become somewhat of a joke, so your resume would not be at all competitive.

alisongoldie2000 · Jun 22, 2021

20 minutes ago, MentalKlarity said:

It's okay to go without experience if your school is a high enough standard that future employers know you likely learned what you needed from school. Likewise, you can somewhat overcome a poor school with lots of experience.

No experience and a poor school? Absolutely not, and finding a job would be hard. So if you're at a for profit program (Walden, Chamberlain, Phoenix, etc) you should either finish the NP elsewhere or plan to stop and get RN experience. Many employers know those schools have almost no entry standards and have become somewhat of a joke, so your resume would not be at all competitive.

I am getting my BSN from university of pittsburgh, and then I will get my BSN-DNP from university of pittsburgh as well. This school is ranked #8 in the united states overall, so I think I'll be fine, right? It's not really the psych experience Im worried about because I'll work as a psych nurse for 3 years while I am in my graduate program. I am worried that I will be less likely to be hired as a psychiatric nurse practitioner due to my lack of medsurg experience. You know how they always say get 1 year of medsurg experience before doing anything?

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jun 22, 2021

16 minutes ago, alisongoldie2000 said:

You know how they always say get 1 year of medsurg experience before doing anything?

"They" stopped being relevant 30 years ago. If psych is what you want to do- do psych.

MentalKlarity, BSN, NP · Jun 22, 2021

1 hour ago, alisongoldie2000 said:

I am getting my BSN from university of pittsburgh, and then I will get my BSN-DNP from university of pittsburgh as well. This school is ranked #8 in the united states overall, so I think I'll be fine, right? It's not really the psych experience Im worried about because I'll work as a psych nurse for 3 years while I am in my graduate program. I am worried that I will be less likely to be hired as a psychiatric nurse practitioner due to my lack of medsurg experience. You know how they always say get 1 year of medsurg experience before doing anything?

I think you'll likely be fine. If you COULD do a gap year or 6 months and get psych RN experience it would be helpful but not absolutely necessary especially graduating from a legit school like U Pitt.

aok7, NP · Jun 23, 2021

It's not that you will have difficulty with excelling in NP school. NP practice is not nursing practice, and not much didactic information if any of RN school relates to the medical focus of NP training. And it is pretty well known there are some NPs who cannot shake their prior RN role. That said, NP role is intended from a very solid base of professional excellence as a RN from some level of practice. Med-surg experience is more the hospital suggestion for a long-term career as a RN, it's chatter among nurses that you might consider if hospital nursing was your passion. Maybe you could volunteer in psych or related community service while in school? This would be golden when sitting among MDs, experienced NPs, and PAs in the future at an interview or shadow day. It is not so much the work, and it is hard to even put in words what only many hours of experience brings...I guess look at PA and MD prerequisites...it's not like the volunteer or work experience is going to make a decision on how to treat sepsis down the road any more clear but there's something to experience that we can't pass up. It's like a life law that just is...in all fields. NP schools are passing this up, and only time will tell, yet some will argue we are already seeing evidence of concern for our profession. I am a big believer in requiring NP residency on the other end, but we must do the best within the profession we have. Until then, we have RN experience or as you might consider volunteer time. Again, depending on desperation of employer and a little luck you might not need any experience to get in the door. It's once we're in the door that we need to be more invested, more hours of training with NP school and then residency, then prior RN development won't be so significant.

MentalKlarity, BSN, NP · Jun 23, 2021

1 hour ago, aok7 said:

It's not that you will have difficulty with excelling in NP school. NP practice is not nursing practice, and not much didactic information if any of RN school relates to the medical focus of NP training. And it is pretty well known there are some NPs who cannot shake their prior RN role. That said, NP role is intended from a very solid base of professional excellence as a RN from some level of practice. Med-surg experience is more the hospital suggestion for a long-term career as a RN, it's chatter among nurses that you might consider if hospital nursing was your passion. Maybe you could volunteer in psych or related community service while in school? This would be golden when sitting among MDs, experienced NPs, and PAs in the future at an interview or shadow day. It is not so much the work, and it is hard to even put in words what only many hours of experience brings...I guess look at PA and MD prerequisites...it's not like the volunteer or work experience is going to make a decision on how to treat sepsis down the road any more clear but there's something to experience that we can't pass up. It's like a life law that just is...in all fields. NP schools are passing this up, and only time will tell, yet some will argue we are already seeing evidence of concern for our profession. I am a big believer in requiring NP residency on the other end, but we must do the best within the profession we have. Until then, we have RN experience or as you might consider volunteer time. Again, depending on desperation of employer and a little luck you might not need any experience to get in the door. It's once we're in the door that we need to be more invested, more hours of training with NP school and then residency, then prior RN development won't be so significant.

The evidence of concern for our profession is caused by subpar for profit programs, not lack of RN experience.

Gentleman_nurse, MSN · Jun 24, 2021

Use your energy to secure quality clinical placements. Your PMHNP student clinical experience holds more weight than RN med-surg.

SDStudent1 · Jun 25, 2021

Short answer is No, you having med-surg will have very little, if any, effect on your job prospects once you graduate.

Longer answer is that people with Med-surg experience will have an easier time during the general nursing courses in the beginning, but once you are through that it will all be equal. I think the more psych specific work you do the better. You have plenty of things you will needed to learn in Psych in the 3 yrs of experience you want to get in school. I think focusing on being a well rounded nurse will likely come at the detriment of you being a well rounded Psych NP. I had only worked in Psych prior to starting Psych NP Program, did really good on the advanced Patho / pharm / health assessment, and was very grateful for my psych experiences once I got deeper into the program. You employer will not care if you had med-surg experience. But they will be impressed by how much experience you have in psych. You prospects for employment are more dependent on the location you are applying. I live in Cali and was offered 3 good paying jobs before I even graduated. My advice would be to focus on getting experience in the field you want to work. But I do understand why this would of concern for you as it was a concern of mine when I began my program. I do agree with what was said above. Probably the most important thing you can do is focus on getting the highest quality clinicals in your program as possible. Don't take the easiest ones like some of my classmates did. They all regretted afterwards. Hope this helps, good luck in your program.

alisongoldie2000 · Jun 25, 2021

Thank you so much, this response really helped! So do you think I’ll be okay with all the general 1st year courses in the DNP program without med surg experience? I know that it builds off the medsurg experience that most nurses have so I hope I don’t struggle too much. I’m doing a 10 week medsurg internship next Summer (my Summer from junior year to senior year) so hopefully that’ll help me in the future! Also, my school offers a few basic DNP classes my senior year of college. (Such as pharmacology & patho).

SDStudent1 · Jun 25, 2021

I think you will do fine. In those classes, the resources used is what helped me the most. For Path, I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend "Pathoma". I cant stress that one enough haha. Makes incredibly difficult concepts incredibly easy to understand. You will end up knowing more than anyone in your class who worked in med-surg if you use that resource, by a long shot. For pharm, Lippincott I thought was helpful. Never really found a good resource for health assessment that made it any easier for me there. I also HIGHLY recommend "Anki" spaced repitition flashcards. Essentially you make the flashcards and it shows them to you in spaced intervals that gradually increase the better you know the material. Helps you to focus more on the stuff you struggle with while showing you stuff you know well less often. I thought it made studying very efficient, learn more in less time. But to answer your question, Yes. I think you will do fine. I spent a lot of time up front studying HOW to study and researching the most effective study methods and I think that helped more than any medsurg experience ever would.