Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner – Career and Education Profile

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Psychiatric nurse practitioners have advanced nursing training, so they can work in leadership positions in the field of mental health.

Job Responsibilities

Your training as a nurse practitioner means that you can complete advanced tasks when working with psychiatric patients. Nurse practitioners can develop treatment plans, assess patients, prescribe medications, and more without direct supervision from physicians. Your exact tasks as a psychiatric nurse practitioner will depend on factors like your specializations and the type of facility where you work. Along with working with patients, you could also take on administrative tasks as a nurse practitioner, and you also have the option to work in research or education on top of doing clinical work.

Salary and Career Options

According to Payscale.com, psychiatric nurse practitioners make an average of $84,897 annually. Factors that can affect the salary you receive include your experience in the field, the location where you live and work, your employer, the type of certifications you have, and whether or not you work in a management position. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, you can earn more money by choosing to specialize even farther, working with a specific type of patient such as senior citizens or those suffering from a specific illness, like autism or depression. You can also decide to go back to school to take counseling classes, working toward earning an addition certification or license in your state so you can better help mental health patients.

Educational Requirements

To become a nurse practitioner, you need at least a master’s degree, which will allow you to take classes in both general nursing and psychiatric care. In the future, all states will require you to go on to get a doctorate degree in order to qualify for certification as a nurse practitioner.

LPN to RN College Programs

While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.

Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road.

The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees.

Other Nursing Degrees

Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school.

Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs.

Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school.

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