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Psychiatric nurses have completed advanced education and can diagnose and prescribe medication for patients with mental illnesses. They can work in private practice, mental health institutions, primary care clinics, and other facilities, and may also be involved in public health and education.
The psychiatric nurse or mental health nurse is a registered nurse who has a completed master’s or sometimes doctoral work in that field. This prepares these specialists to work specifically with people with psychiatric illnesses and, in most cases, be able to diagnose illnesses and prescribe medications. Those interested in the field of advanced mental health nursing should know that there are many types of psychiatric nurse jobs. Most of them deal with direct patient care, but some may be oriented towards education or public education.
Some psychiatric nurse jobs are private practice professionals. In most states, these nurses can diagnose and prescribe and work independently and without supervision. They may run their own practice and work with patients with mental illness and require diagnosis of that illness in addition to medication management. The individual nurse can determine whether or not to offer counseling as well as part of their services and can conduct regular sessions that include medication management as needed. In states or countries where mental health nurses require supervision, these nurses may still work in private practice, assisting psychiatrists or other physicians and seeing some patients.
Occasionally, large or small primary care clinics employ a psychiatric nurse to care for patients with mental health needs. This can be helpful because it provides a more direct way for patients to get care and diagnosis. It can also easily coordinate with any other care a patient regularly receives from a primary care physician.
Other professional psychiatric nurse jobs include those in mental health institutions where, with or without a psychiatrist’s supervision, professional nurses may work with the patient population and make decisions about patient treatment and care. The goal in most mental health facilities is to stabilize patients. Once stable, patients can return home and receive continued care with a psychiatric nurse or psychiatrist on an outpatient basis.
There are other large facilities that may have one or more psychiatric nurse jobs. Mental health nursing professionals could work in correctional facilities, assisting incarcerated mentally ill people. They may also work in dual-diagnosis drug rehabilitation centers, physical rehabilitation hospitals, or in long-term care facilities. Standard hospitals may also have psychiatric nurse jobs.
In some circumstances, psychiatric nurse practitioner jobs are directed toward public health and education. Jobs may include participating in writing educational materials about mental health issues or working with specific groups to teach about mental illnesses to which that group may be particularly vulnerable. When these nurses obtain doctoral degrees, they may decide to teach others about their profession by becoming faculty members at a college that offers a training program for psychiatric nurses.
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