NURS 6003 week 10 Discussion: Examining Nursing Specialties You have probably seen one or more of the many inspirational posters about decisions. A visual such as a forked road or a street sign is typically pictured, along with a quote designed to inspire. Decisions are often not so easily inspired. Perhaps you discovered this when choosing a specialty within the MSN program. This decision is a critical part of your plan for success, and you no doubt want to get it right. This is yet another area where your network can help, as well as other sources of information that can help you make an informed choice. To Prepare: Reflect on your decision to pursue a specialty within the MSN program, including your professional and academic goals as they relate to your program/specialization. By Day 3 of Week 10 Post an explanation of your choice of a nursing specialty within the program. Describe any difficulties you had (or are having) in making your choice, and the factors that drove/are drivin

NURS 6003 week 10 Discussion: Examining Nursing Specialties You have probably seen one or more of the many inspirational posters about decisions. A visual such as a forked road or a street sign is typically pictured, along with a quote designed to inspire. Decisions are often not so easily inspired. Perhaps you discovered this when choosing a specialty within the MSN program. This decision is a critical part of your plan for success, and you no doubt want to get it right. This is yet another area where your network can help, as well as other sources of information that can help you make an informed choice. To Prepare: Reflect on your decision to pursue a specialty within the MSN program, including your professional and academic goals as they relate to your program/specialization. By Day 3 of Week 10 Post an explanation of your choice of a nursing specialty within the program. Describe any difficulties you had (or are having) in making your choice, and the factors that drove/are drivin

Difficulties in Making Choice and the Factors Driving the Choice

There were several difficulties in making the above choice of PMHNP, as already stated. To begin with, all the APRN roles seemed good. Practically all of them could be applied to effectively give back to the community. NURS 6003 week 10 Discussion: Examining Nursing Specialties. The author was therefore spoilt for choice. Secondly, it was not easy to distinguish between the matter of APRN roles and that of population focus. As a matter of fact, the matter of population focus is one that is only now beginning to get well understood by the author. As for the factors driving the author’s choice of PMHNP, the first and foremost was their childhood experiences and experiences growing up as an adolescent in their community. There were frequent cases of suicides among adolescents and young adults and the author understood from listening to community members that the victims needed mental health services that were not readily available to manage their depression at the community level. This was the main driving factor for the choice of the PMHNP specialty.

A Professional Organization Affiliated with the Chosen Specialty

The professional nursing organization affiliated with this PMHNP specialty chosen by the author is the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA). It is an association that currently has more than 13,500 members who are either qualified professionals or postgraduate students. The membership of this organization is through subscription whose payment can be made on a monthly or yearly basis (APNA, 2020). The other organization that is affiliated with this specialty but which is broader is the American Association of Nurse Practitioners or AANP, in which the member can get the honor of becoming a Fellow of the association by invitation (Rossiter et al., 2017).

References

American Psychiatric Nurses Association [APNA] (2020). American psychiatric nurses association. https://www.apna.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1