Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are medical workers designated for providing of primary, acute and specialty healthcare to people of any age. Their main task is to assist patients, assess their health status, interpret their tests and diagnosis as well as directly diagnose them, and initiate, maintain and fulfill treatment. This includes prescription of medications. Therefore, nurse practitioners are a priori providers of health care for millions of people (American Association of Nurse Practitioners).
However, there is a group of NPs who differ dramatically from the others. Psychiatric nurse practitioners provide a unique set of services that make them unlike others. Their role is developing in the modern world, as many people became diagnosed with issues that are results of depression and stress. That is why their role and the range of services they provide vary too much. Nesnera and Allen (2016) write, “Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) are assuming increasing clinical responsibilities in the treatment of individuals with mental illness as the shortage of psychiatrists and the maldistribution continues to persist in the United States” (p. 482). It is crucially important to admit the fact that psychiatric nurse practitioners indeed deal with the increased number of mental diseases. Special programs allow nurse practitioners to fulfill complicated treatments and interpret difficult diagnoses. This is very helpful for doctors, who also experience a workload and maldistribution.
Their position is also unique, as they can work in a huge variety of healthcare institutions, including emergency rooms, outpatient settings, nursing homes, psychiatric units, hospitals etc. This all led to evolution of psychiatric nurse practitioners. Those NPs who are certified to treat people with mental disabilities increasingly act as independent practitioners. Their scope of activities has been changing along the evolution of the profession. Psychiatric NPs started as special program graduates, but later they became well-trained clinicians. After some time, they were allowed to prescribe medication and provide clinical care (Nesnera & Allen, 2016, p. 482).
Psychiatric nurse practitioners are also known as advanced practice nurses (APNs). Their contribution to the modern healthcare provision and entire function of mental health care is huge. They act in partnerships with psychiatrists, but also act on behalf of themselves. This right is established in documents and rules in many countries, including the U.S. Psychiatric nurse practitioners are also needed to bridge the gap between increasing number of people who need medical help with mental illness and the shortage of psychiatrists. However, such partnerships have both pros and cons. On the one side, doctors cannot be substituted by nurses, as only they can diagnose and have enough knowledge and experience in order to treat people. On the other, it is better to provide even less qualified assistance to a person rather than not to provide it at all as a result of the doctors’ workload. The problem is also obvious when introducing NPs to psychiatric practice settings. Their ways of diagnosing, manner of providing treatment and application of policies differ significantly from those used in the settings (Theccanat, 2015, p. 913).
References
American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (n.d.) All About NPs. Retrieved from https://www.aanp.org/all-about-nps
Nesnera, Alexander and Allen, Diane. (2016, May). Expanding the Role of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners in a State Psychiatric System: The New Hampshire Experience. Psychiatric Services, 67(5), 482-484. Retrieved from http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ps.201500486
Theccanat, Stephen. (2015, September). Integrating Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners Into Psychiatric Practice Settings. Psychiatric Services, 66(9), 913-915. Retrieved from http://ppf.hs.columbia.edu/Theccanat.pdf
