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The International Society of Psychiatric Nursing (ISPN) and the American Psychiatric Nursing Association (APNA) have entered into partnership with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to study the alignment of graduate education, workforce needs, and certification. No doubt members of these associations have read about this initiative (ANCC, APNA, & ISPN, 2006). As part of this effort, a task force has been convened to study the issues surrounding the Psychiatric Mental Health (PMH) family and child/adolescent advanced practice nursing workforce, hi this update, I will summarize the issues that prompted ISPN/APNA to convene this task force, outline the functions of the task force, discuss workforce development trends of family and child/adolescent (C/A) psychiatric nurses, and suggest avenues for ACAPN member involvement.
Currently, the ANCC has four exams in PMH nursing. Two PMH Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) exams have been offered since 1973; one with an adult focus and a second C/A specialty exam. In 2000, the ANCC began offering two PMH Nurse Practitioner (NP) exams, the Adult PMH NP and Family PMH-NP exams. All APNs seeking certification in PMH nursing must pass one of these ANCC exams. In reporting workforce data for the most recent Mental Health, United States, nursing estimated a PMH graduate workforce of 18,269, which includes both certified and noncertified masters prepared PMH nurses (Duffy et al., 2004). Of that number, in 2005, the PMH certified workforce is as follows:
* 7,023 Adult Clinical Nurse Specialists
* 990 Child and Adolescent CNS Clinical Nurse Specialists
* 1,501 Adult Nurse Practitioners
* 487 Family Nurse Practitioners
Thus, we estimate a 10,000 member advanced practice nursing workforce now being certified by four separate PMH certification exams1.
Particular issues have arisen with the four-exam structure, foremost the debate around the differentiation of the PMH CNS versus NP role. The leadership of APNA, ISPN, and ANCC has collaborated in studying the role delineation data around this issue. Their goal is to develop an innovative exam structure for the PMH adult certification candidates; one that would test the competencies and knowledge of the PMH APN but differentiate the roles based on educational preparation (ANCC, APNA, & ISPN, 2006). This is a terribly important matter and readers should follow its progression. However,...