The Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Workforce: Charting the Future

Abstract

There is a well-documented demand for psychiatric providers, clinicians whose scope of practice includes all essential psychiatric services, such as assessment, diagnosis, psychotherapeutic/psychotherapy interventions, and psychotropic medication treatment (American Psychiatric Nurses Association, International Society of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses, & American Nurses Association, 2014). Psychiatric mental health (PMH) Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) have the education, training, and licensure to meet this demand. The PMH APRN workforce has been growing over the past 20 years and has the potential to mitigate the Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas (MHPSAs) that states are attempting to address (Delaney, 2017; Kaiser Family Foundation, 2016). However, federal reports and mental health workforce studies often mischaracterize the PMH APRNs' scope of practice and present conflicting data on the number of currently certified practitioners. The profession must meet the pervasive misinformation about PMH APRNs with a consistent, clearly articulated message about the scope of practice, range of skills, and types of services provided. To effectively participate in mental health workforce planning, the specialty must be armed with an accurate depiction of current PMH APRNs, data on the educational pipeline, the anticipated growth of the workforce, and expected retirements. Objective This article outlines the anticipated number and characteristics of the PMH APRN entrants to the workforce. Enrollment and graduation trends are examined to estimate 5-year growth of the workforce, taking potential retirements into consideration. We discuss facilitators and 806571J APXXX10.

Professional quality of life and psychological resilience among psychiatric nurses

“…In the 21st century, there have been changes in the roles of psychiatric nurses worldwide 22 and in Turkey. However, progress in psychiatric nursing practice in Turkey has remained slow compared to developed countries.…”

Will We Be Ready? Preparing Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses for Future Practice

“…The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners reports that only 4.1% of advanced practice nurses specialize in PMH, which limits the pool of available faculty and preceptors (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 2019). On the positive side, Delaney and Vanderhoef (2019) found a 63% increase in students enrolled in PMH NP programs in 2017 compared with 2014. These authors conservatively estimate that nearly 2,000 PMH NPs will graduate by 2020 thanks to an increase in the number of PMH NP programs that are being offered to respond to the national call for better mental health care access and treatment.…”

AANP Forum

“…However, despite the projected exponential increase of the PMHNP workforce, patients are likely to experience barriers to care due to state practice and licensure laws that reduce or restrict the ability of PMHNPs to practice to their full scope of practice . 7 To ensure clinicians are available to meet new challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid epidemic, state regulatory and institutional barriers that prevent full and direct access to NPs should be lifted. For additional information on trends in enrollment and graduation in other population foci, please review the complete American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) DNP research brief.…”