What does a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner do?
The key role of a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner is to diagnose mental illnesses and prescribe medications. They provide staff and family consultation around medications and other clinical concerns, as well as perform group/individual therapy and assessments.
Psychiatric nurse practitioner responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real psychiatric nurse practitioner resumes:
- Lead quality assessment of client's QA / QC processes, organizations, and test environments.
- Manage outpatient pacemaker and ICD interrogations and remote transmission follow-ups.
- Manage pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of diabetes and provide prescriptions and education before discharge from the hospital.
- Obtain necessary certifications, including child abuse clearance, CPR, and nonviolent crisis intervention training.
- Perform rapid triage, psychiatric nursing assessment and medication administration.
- Examine or conduct laboratory or diagnostic tests on patients to provide information on general physical condition and mental disorder.
- Empty Foley catheter, JP drains, NG tubing.
- Confirm CPR trainings of unit staff.
- Perform echocardiogram and nuclear stress testing.
- Function as a PMHNP in the community.
- Teach, precept, supervise and evaluate PMHNP students.
- Assess, diagnose, and treat veterans in the outpatient psychiatric clinic.
- Utilize all aspects of ACLS in the setting of acute coronary processes.
- Used caching mechanisms such as Java base local, distribute caches etc.
- Provide phone triage to clients calling with psychiatric symptoms or reporting medication side effects.
Psychiatric nurse practitioner skills and personality traits
We calculated that 25% of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners are proficient in Patients, Behavioral Health, and Patient Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Emotional stability, Interpersonal skills, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 25%
Treated a variety of general psychiatric patients referred by primary care and internal medicine providers within the Franciscan system.
- Behavioral Health, 12%
Provided psychiatric evaluation and medication management for adults, children and adolescents in outpatient and residential behavioral health settings.
- Patient Care, 8%
Conducted evaluations to determine whether service member would be referred for inpatient care or treated in an out- patient setting.
- Diagnostic Tests, 6%
Order and monitor results of laboratory and any other necessary diagnostic testing.
- Medication Management, 6%
Provided medication management and psychotherapy to a culturally diverse population as part of an interdisciplinary team in an outpatient clinic setting.
- Mental Health, 4%
Conducted psychiatric/mental health evaluations and diagnosis of children, adolescents and young adults with eating disorders and co-morbid conditions.
Common skills that a psychiatric nurse practitioner uses to do their job include "patients," "behavioral health," and "patient care." You can find details on the most important psychiatric nurse practitioner responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling psychiatric nurse practitioner duties is interpersonal skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "aprns must work with patients and families as well as with other healthcare providers and staff." According to a psychiatric nurse practitioner resume, here's how psychiatric nurse practitioners can utilize interpersonal skills in their job responsibilities: "demonstrated excellent interpersonal skills with clients and staff. "
Communication skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of psychiatric nurse practitioners is communication skills. This skill is critical to many everyday psychiatric nurse practitioner duties, as "advanced practice registered nurses have to be able to communicate with patients and other healthcare professionals to ensure the appropriate course of action." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "maintained contact and communication with outpatient care team , family / significant others to assure successful transition as appropriate. "
Compassion. For certain psychiatric nurse practitioner responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "compassion." The day-to-day duties of a psychiatric nurse practitioner rely on this skill, as "aprns should be caring and sympathetic when treating patients." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what psychiatric nurse practitioners do: "served on interdisciplinary leadership team to develop and implement compassion fatigue program for nurses hospital wide. "
Detail oriented. Another crucial skill for a psychiatric nurse practitioner to carry out their responsibilities is "detail oriented." A big part of what psychiatric nurse practitioners relies on this skill, since "aprns need to be thorough in providing treatments and medications that affect their patients’ health." How this skill relates to psychiatric nurse practitioner duties can be seen in an example from a psychiatric nurse practitioner resume snippet: "perform initial and returning detailed mental health assessments, and prescribe psychiatric medications for ambulatory clients in a clinic setting. "
Leadership skills. Another skill commonly found on psychiatric nurse practitioner job descriptions is "leadership skills." It can come up quite often in psychiatric nurse practitioner duties, since "aprns often work in positions of seniority." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day psychiatric nurse practitioner responsibilities: "implement leadership through unit management for patients' care in a complex behavioral health environment"
The three companies that hire the most psychiatric nurse practitioners are:
- Thriveworks297 psychiatric nurse practitioners jobs
- Brightside Health130 psychiatric nurse practitioners jobs
- Forefront Telecare28 psychiatric nurse practitioners jobs
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Compare different psychiatric nurse practitioners
Psychiatric nurse practitioner vs. Mental health nurse
A mental health nurse is responsible for assisting with the diagnosis and treatment plans of patients with mental health complications. Mental health nurses handle high-quality nursing care under mental health professionals' supervision within a hospital or mental health institution. They support in performing therapeutic activities, administering medical examinations, and counseling patients to know more about their conditions. A mental health nurse also does administrative tasks as needed, such as organizing and updating patients' information on the database, processing treatment payments, and responding to the family's inquiries and concerns.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, psychiatric nurse practitioner responsibilities require skills like "behavioral health," "patient care," "adolescents," and "arnp." Meanwhile a typical mental health nurse has skills in areas such as "psychiatric mental," "pmhnp," "cpr," and "home health." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Mental health nurses tend to make the most money working in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $113,936. In contrast, psychiatric nurse practitioners make the biggest average salary, $109,219, in the health care industry.mental health nurses tend to reach lower levels of education than psychiatric nurse practitioners. In fact, mental health nurses are 28.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Psychiatric nurse practitioner vs. Practitioner
The duties of a practitioner depend on one's line of work or industry of employment. In the medical field, a practitioner is a doctor who provides medical services to patients according to their health issues or concerns, primarily by diagnosing and treating illnesses and injuries. Their responsibilities include performing examinations and assessments, providing consultations and advice, prescribing medication, and referring patients to specialists when necessary. They must also maintain an active communication line with nurses and technicians for a smooth and efficient workflow.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real psychiatric nurse practitioner resumes. While psychiatric nurse practitioner responsibilities can utilize skills like "behavioral health," "diagnostic tests," "psychiatric care," and "psychiatric services," practitioners use skills like "resuscitation," "continuous improvement," "mental illness," and "dea."
Practitioners earn a lower average salary than psychiatric nurse practitioners. But practitioners earn the highest pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $104,329. Additionally, psychiatric nurse practitioners earn the highest salaries in the health care with average pay of $109,219 annually.In general, practitioners achieve lower levels of education than psychiatric nurse practitioners. They're 19.8% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 1.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Psychiatric nurse practitioner vs. Emergency medicine nurse practitioner
An international medicine nurse practitioner is responsible for the coordination, organization, and medical management of internal medicine, which is also sometimes known as general medicine. A nurse practitioner provides proper care to patients, especially when they do not have visitors. They typically work in a hospital, nurse stations, outpatient departments, and other medical institutions. This position requires them to have a nursing license.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, psychiatric nurse practitioners are more likely to have skills like "behavioral health," "medication management," "mental health," and "substance abuse." But a emergency medicine nurse practitioner is more likely to have skills like "emergency medicine," "surgery," "mri," and "x rays."
Emergency medicine nurse practitioners typically earn lower educational levels compared to psychiatric nurse practitioners. Specifically, they're 6.9% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Psychiatric nurse practitioner vs. Internal medicine nurse practitioner
Even though a few skill sets overlap between psychiatric nurse practitioners and internal medicine nurse practitioners, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a psychiatric nurse practitioner might have more use for skills like "behavioral health," "patient care," "medication management," and "mental health." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of internal medicine nurse practitioners require skills like "primary care," "direct patient care," "epic," and "acute care. "
In general, internal medicine nurse practitioners earn the most working in the health care industry, with an average salary of $107,930. The highest-paying industry for a psychiatric nurse practitioner is the health care industry.internal medicine nurse practitioners reach lower levels of education compared to psychiatric nurse practitioners, in general. The difference is that they're 6.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of psychiatric nurse practitioner
Updated January 8, 2025
