Certification Plan American Nurses Credentialing Center

Psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioners currently have only one choice for certification, which is through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The ANCC offers the “psychiatric/mental-health nurse practitioner (across the lifespan)” board certification (PMHNP-BC). In many states, board certification is needed as a prerequisite to being granted an NP license. Even if board certification is not a requirement for state licensure, it may be a requirement to receive privileges in various hospitals and other health care facilities. It may also be required by malpractice insurance providers prior to issuing coverage to NPs.

In this Practicum Journal Assignment, you will develop a plan, which will serve as the road map for you to follow to attain your certification.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

· Analyze state restrictions or limitations for practice

· Compare PMHNP practice environments in various states

· Analyze clinical practice issues

· Create plans for passing national certification exams

To prepare for this Practicum Journal

· Review the interactive nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice law guide in

your Learning Resources.

· Review your state regulations and a neighboring state or state in which you

would like to practice.

· Reflect on how to approach relocating licensure from one state to another.

· Review certification exam requirements for PMHNPs.

Write a 2- to 3-page paper in which you do the following: (Assignment)

· Describe the Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)

practice environment for your home state (Texas), highlighting restrictions or

limitations for practice.

· Compare the PMHNP practice environment in your home state (Texas) with a

neighboring state (Louisiana) or a state in which you would like to practice.

· Describe a professional and/or clinical practice issue a new PMHNP will need to

consider and address with the certification, licensure, credentialing, or relocation

process.

· Develop a checklist for passing the national certification exam, including a

detailed timeline that includes academic preparation (study plan), registration,

financial preparation, etc.

NB: for this Assignment (Journal Entries)

· Include references immediately following the content.

· Use APA style for your journal entry and references less than 5 years old.

PLEASE INCLUDE INTRODUCTION, CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES LESS THAN 5 YEARS OLD

Learning Resources

Required Readings

Barton Associates. (2017). Nurse practitioner scope of practice laws. Retrieved from https://www.bartonassociates.com/locum-tenens-resources/nurse-practitioner-scope-of-practice-laws/

American Psychiatric Association. (2016). Practice guidelines for the psychiatric evaluation of adults. Retrieved from http://psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.books.9780890426760

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.