--- title: "Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse" description: "Assess, diagnose, and treat individuals and families with mental health or substance use disorders or the potential for such disorders. Apply therapeutic…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse" last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z" --- # Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse **Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1141 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1141.02 Assess, diagnose, and treat individuals and families with mental health or substance use disorders or the potential for such disorders. Apply therapeutic activities, including the prescription of medication, per state regulations, and the administration of psychotherapy. Also advertised as: Adult Psychiatric Mental Health APRN (Adult Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Registered Nurse); Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse; APN (Advanced Practice Nurse); Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist (BC PMH-CNS); PMHNP (Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner); Psychiatric APN (Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurse); Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist (Psychiatric CNS); Psychiatric NP (Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner). ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $97,550 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $46.90/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $68,940 to $137,470, with the middle half between $80,330 and $112,350 - **Total US employment:** 3,379,720 - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's - **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +4.9% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034) - **Annual job openings:** 189,100 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 31/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 3,379,720 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $68,940 | | 25th | $80,330 | | 50th (median) | $97,550 | | 75th | $112,350 | | 90th | $137,470 | | Mean (average) | $101,420 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA | $140,270 | $126,689 | 338,940 | | HI | $136,320 | $123,983 | 12,940 | | OR | $129,010 | $124,815 | 39,730 | | WA | $124,200 | $116,061 | 69,260 | | AK | $109,480 | $106,957 | 7,510 | | NY | $109,440 | $101,408 | 205,810 | | NJ | $106,500 | $97,882 | 92,680 | | MA | $104,550 | $98,859 | 88,200 | | NV | $103,670 | $103,692 | 27,070 | | CT | $102,740 | $99,160 | 40,110 | | DC | $102,540 | $93,302 | 11,440 | | MN | $101,510 | $102,929 | 70,110 | | RI | $100,640 | $98,397 | 10,090 | | CO | $100,260 | $97,291 | 54,490 | | MD | $99,790 | $95,075 | 52,910 | 38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 3,391,000 in the 2024–2034 base year to 3,557,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 166,100 jobs, or +4.9%. Faster than average: 4.9% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 189,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Master's Degree | 87.0% | | Doctoral Degree | 8.7% | | First Professional Degree | 4.4% | ## What the work involves - Assess patients' mental and physical status, based on the presenting symptoms and complaints. - Diagnose psychiatric disorders and mental health conditions. - Document patients' medical and psychological histories, physical assessment results, diagnoses, treatment plans, prescriptions, or outcomes. - Educate patients and family members about mental health and medical conditions, preventive health measures, medications, or treatment plans. - Monitor patients' medication usage and results. - Evaluate patients' behavior to formulate diagnoses or assess treatments. - Distinguish between physiologically- and psychologically-based disorders, and diagnose appropriately. - Develop and implement treatment plans. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Active Listening — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Learning Strategies — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Instructing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Persuasion — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Psychology — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Therapy and Counseling — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Biology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Sociology and Anthropology — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Conventional (C). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | S — Social | 6.07 | | I — Investigative | 5.90 | | C — Conventional | 3.35 | | A — Artistic | 2.82 | | R — Realistic | 2.59 | | E — Enterprising | 2.04 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | INFJ | 66.4 | | INFP | 64.1 | | ISFP | 59.2 | | ENFP | 58.1 | | ENFJ | 56.3 | Best-fitting types: INFJ, INFP. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300 - [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550 - [Psychiatrist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatrist) — median $281,870 - [Psychiatric Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatric-technician) — median $45,130 - [Family Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/family-medicine-physician) — median $244,180 - [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Mental Health Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-counselor) — median $60,320 - [Clinical Neuropsychologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-neuropsychologist) — median $110,840 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse