IMHO no NP should be prescribing psychiatric meds. Period. I am a nurse and I have a sister in law who got her PNP in less than a year. It take at least 10 years to become competent as a psychiatrist let alone a nurse being one.

A PNP may be ok for alcohol and drug abuse facilities, but not for people without drug and alcohol addictions.

If your Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) is prescribing, I would question her/him as to what psychiatrist's license they practice under. Tell the PNP you want to be seen by that physician psychiatrist no less than twice a year.

Becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner can be done online! I am not trusting my health to an online or any other Nurse Practitioner. They also tend to come and go, but you NEED a STABLE psychiatrist who has a vested interest in their practice; not an unstable lower staffed PNP; they simply provide PNPs to hold down budgets!

A nurse practitioner may be fine for managing physical illnesses - to a point - because there is a shortage of all doctors, as in pediatrics, term, internal medicine. PNPs may be OK in some instances in supervising psych ward STAFF nurses but PNPs are no more a qualified to independently diagnose and treat psych conditions than they are to perform neurosurgery.