My Career Choice

1. My Career Choice Keana Eakins

2. Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

3. Skills and abilities required to be successful in the career • Need to be able to work with individuals, families, groups, and communities, assessing their mental health needs. • Diagnosis and plan of care, implements the nursing process, and evaluates it for effectiveness. • Diagnose, and diagnosis and plan of care, implements the nursing process, and evaluates it for effectiveness

4. Required education (Degree, # of years of college/training, etc.) • In advance I need my PhD or EdD but I will need to get my masters doctoral degrees in psychiatric-mental health nursing.

5. Tasks or common work activities typically done in this career • Usually you work with individuals, families, groups, and communities, assessing their mental health needs. They treat people with disorder problems.

6. Salary range for my career • $90,000

7. I need to take the following steps to prepare myself for my chosen career. • -First need to earn a nursing degree • • Become a registered nurse. You can do this by attending a nursing school, although nurses who have bachelor's degrees earn more. • • Get a high school diploma or GED. It helps if you take classes in math, biology and other subjects related to nursing. Work hard to earn good grades, because nursing schools are selective about whom they enroll. • • Enter a two-year or four-year program nursing program at a community college, university or nursing school. Two-year programs allow you to start working sooner, but a four-year program makes it easier for you to get advanced degrees. • • Pass the licensing exam to become a registered nurse. These exams are administered by your state's nursing board. • • Work in a psychiatric setting to determine if you have the aptitude for working with patients who range from fragile to dangerous. Psychiatric nursing requires communication skills, the ability to manage others, and physical endurance. You can ask for a psychiatric rotation at the hospital where you work, volunteer in a community program or work for a while as a psychiatric aide. • • Get additional training in skills psychiatric nurses need. You should know how to conduct therapy, work with other medical professionals, deal with difficult patients and administer medication. You can do this by returning to school, or you can learn on the job. • • Take the exam to become certified in psychiatric-mental health nursing. The exam is administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Your state may not require that you be certified, but you will earn more if you are. • • Work in general psychiatry or specialize in adult mental disorders, children and adolescents, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, forensic psychiatry (working with mentally ill people who have committed crimes) or disorders of old age, such as dementia.

8. Jobs related to my career field • LPN • RN

9. Other interesting information that I learned about my career • Also act as a therapist, helping patients with depression, anxiety and suicidal individuals, and other conditions that can be remedied with counseling. • Psychiatric Nurses treat patients diagnosed with conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. They’re also trained in behavioral therapy, which allows these nurses to teach patients, and their loved ones, how to deal with challenges that go along with psychiatric disorders