The Unique Experience of Learning from Other NPs
There’s something deeply affirming about learning from someone who shares your professional lens, who understands how you actually move through a clinical day. Someone who has sat in your exact chair and asked the same questions, felt the same imposter syndrome, and made the same kinds of decisions.
For PMHNPs, learning from other nurse practitioners brings a kind of familiarity and understanding that can be hard to find in other post-graduate training programs..
What the Nursing Lens Brings to Psychiatric Practice
The nursing model is centered on whole-person care. It makes space for the clinical relationship, where we incorporate the meaning a person makes of their experiences alongside the typical approaches to psychiatric care.
When we learn from other NPs, we’re learning from people who know how to bring together sharp assessment skills, pharmacologic knowledge, patient education, and therapeutic presence, often all within the same 30-minute visit.
It helps us remember that we are not training to be lesser versions of something else. We are learning to be excellent NPs.
At the same time, it would be a disservice not to acknowledge something many of us feel, especially in psychiatric practice: that the expectations placed on NPs are high, but the tolerance for missteps can feel low.
As much as our day-to-day work often overlaps with that of our physician colleagues, our scope is not identical (ex. state regulations, interventional approaches) and the level of institutional protection we’re offered is sometimes different, too.
These differences can mean that we often need to be a little more conservative in our clinical choices, especially when working with interventions where evidence is growing but not yet mainstream. (As an aside, the translation of evidence into practice takes over 10 years – an unacceptably long time to begin using treatments that can work!)
This mindful approach to integrative treatment might look like:
Recommending nutraceuticals with stronger safety profiles before exploring less-studied options
Deferring or referring out certain lab orders if interpretation is outside your scope of knowledge
Being very clear in documentation about what was discussed, what was recommended, and how follow-up will be managed
Knowing when to refer to a collaborative provider
These types of decisions demonstrate wise and considerate clinical practice. When we learn from NPs with integrative expertise the how and when of these approaches, we can feel confident in the care we provide and patients continue to trust us as they begin to feel better.
A Culture of Equality
Many NPs describe NP-led learning as collaborative and encouraging. There tends to be more openness, more resource-sharing, and less posturing.
There’s room for asking questions without feeling shame. There’s space to share your own clinical challenges without wondering if you’ll be seen as unqualified. There’s a kind of mutual respect that grows when people are working with shared purpose, rather than competition.
When NPs teach other NPs there is an innate understanding of the learner’s background and training. In these spaces, the goal isn’t to turn you into a substitute physician. The goal is to help you become a more skilled, responsible, and competent version of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner you already are.
Final Thoughts
Learning from other PMHNPs can feel different because it is different. It meets you where you are without requiring you to prove yourself or swallow your insecurities out of shame.
If you’ve ever felt like existing education didn’t reflect the reality of your role (or if you’ve ever wanted to grow your skill set in a way that feels authentic and based in research) you’re not alone.
And you’re exactly who we built this course for.
Our Intro to Integrative Psychiatry for PMHNPs course was created by PMHNPs, for PMHNPs. It’s grounded in foundational nursing values, built with clinical rigor, and designed to help you offer more to your patients without working outside your scope of practice or doing harm.
We’d love to learn and grow with you. Learn more about the introductory course here.
