Ask an NP – PMHNPs as the Backbone of Mental Health Facilities

00:01 Being a nurse practitioner, you're going to find that it's a very rewarding and challenging career, but sometimes there's other disciplines that don't really recognize the importance of nurse practitioners in the medical field. We We feel a huge gap as mid-level providers, mostly just because the lack of availability to a lot of these physicians. You can get in to see a nurse practitioner way easier than you can get a psychiatrist, for example, or any type of other specialty. Sometimes it's months and months to get in, but nurse practitioners, we're the backbone of the mental health facility, and the big reason is because there's a lot more of us, and we can cover these rural areas that these MDs and DOs really can't... they don't have the opportunity to go to these rural areas and take care of these patients. So nurse practitioners, you are valuable, you are needed, and I'm very proud that I am a nurse practitioner, and I'll never regret it, and I love it.