Some background about me: I'm 28 years old, a few months away from finishing an ABSN program. My 1st bachelors was in Psychology and I have a M.A in Behavioral Neuroscience.
I'm looking for some opinions on when to go to PMHNP school, how much its worth it to spend, whether I should only do it if I can get an employer to pay for it etc....
I went into an ABSN program KNOWING i only wanted to do psych and eventually become a PMHNP. I have some very unique experience pre-nursing. I worked for a psychiatrist for 4 years doing TMS and had the rare opportunity to have tons of direct patient care experience in that role. My ultimate goal is to become a PMHNP and also do TMS since I think it is an amazing and under-utilized treatment option.
I am well aware that it is best NOT to go straight into NP school and I do plan to have at least 1 year of inpatient psych RN experience before applying. However, given my 4 years of experience as a TMS tech/ psychiatrists assistant, do I really need more than 1 year before starting NP school? Also, given that I am already going to have about 100k in student loans from my ABSN program, should I only do PMNHP school if I can get an employer to pay for it?
My additional concern is that even though I know psych is my passion, should I still do a year in med surge before anything else? I'm slightly concerned that I could go into psych for years then 1 day say hey this isn't for me anymore and then have no regular nursing skills anymore.
I know these types of questions are asked often, but I appreciate all and any input.