Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners help people who are experiencing a wide range of mental health issues. A difficult, but important and rewarding career.

Psychiatric nurses, or psych nurses, work with psychiatric patients of all backgrounds and ages. They help children, adults, and teens cope with psychiatric disorders, such as depression, substance abuse, or schizophrenia. In the medical field, a psychiatric nurse is called a psychiatric mental health nurse, or PMHN.

Psych nurses use their nursing expertise in the mental health community. Therefore, they must be good at communicating and relating and be well versed in behavioral science.

When working as a psych nurse, you may perform the following tasks:

Review a patient’s status
Provide care based on a prescribed treatment approach
Issue medicine and check side effects and responses
Teach patients specific coping skills
Offer counseling to patients
Work with medical team members
Prescribe medicines
Offer psychotherapy services
Assess and diagnose mental health conditions

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Salary Range

Psychiatric Nurses can be one of the highest paid nurse specialties. The amount they make will depend on several factors – education level, experience, workplace, and location.

A registered nurse who specializes and works as a psych nurse will earn similar amounts to other RNs – average salary $73,550. Further educational qualifications and training will lead to significantly higher salaries.

If you obtain a degree as an advanced practice nurse in the psychiatric field, you will make more money as a certified nurse practitioner (CNP) or clinical nurse specialist (CNS). Psychiatric Nurse practitioners can expect to earn an average salary of $107,480.

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Training

To begin your career journey, you must complete a nursing program first. Most beginning nursing programs feature a clinic rotation in the psychiatric section, which permits you to experience working in this area.

To become a registered nurse or an RN, you must enroll in either a two-year program in nursing or take part in a three-year hospital-based program. You can also attend a four-year college that issues four-year bachelor degrees in nursing.

After you receive nursing training, you need to sit for an RN licensing exam. This exam is referred to as the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX, for short. Once you have passed the exam, you are ready to apply for nursing jobs.

To become a psych nurse, you need to become certified through a credentialing organization, such as the well-known American Nurses Credentialing Center, or the ANCC.

How to Obtain Certification

The five-year certification requires the following:

An RN license, currently active
Two years’ experience practicing as a registered nurse (RN)
At least 2,000 hours of practice in clinical psych nursing within a three-year timeframe
Continuing education of at least 30 hours within three years

Working as a Psychiatric Nurse

If you work as a psych nurse, you will find that you need to be able to multitask well in a healthcare setting. You also need to handle stress well. After all, you are helping people with emotional problems. Therefore, you need to maintain a professional demeanor and keep your own emotions in check.

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Work Settings

You can choose from various venues when working as a psych nurse. Some of the health care facilities you can choose from include the following:

Hospitals, including VA hospital and medical centers
Primary care facilities
Government facilities, such as prisons or agencies connected to the court system

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects job growth figures of 16% across all nursing careers through 2024. This will be higher for Psychiatric Nurse practitioners.

A shortage currently exists of psych nurses in the field. That is because mental health is becoming an increasing concern in the US. According to statistics, about 44 million adults were diagnosed with a mental illness in 2015. This total represents almost 18% of the adults in the country, and excludes people diagnosed with substance abuse problems.

Psychiatric nursing is a high demand nursing role, and will continue to be of importance over the next five years. Now is the time to direct your career path so you can make a difference, whether you are currently studying to be a nurse or working as a nurse practitioner.

If you want to help people with substance abuse issues or mental disorders as a nurse, you will find that your opportunities in this area are excellent. You just need to make a commitment along these lines.

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Resources

Check out our other main nursing career guides and of course the nursing salary pages for lots of information.

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