Salary: Top paying specialties–psychiatric nurse practitioners

#1. certified RN anesthetists
#2. orthopedics
#3. geriatrics
#4. perioperative
#5. clinical nurse specialists

Psychiatric nurse practitioners

Yearly Salary: $65,000 and $101,000 a year.

Hot tip: As with clinical nurse specialists, we recommend getting experience as an RN in order to break into this field.

Why you might love this job: These nurses get to work with all age groups in either a primary care facility, outpatient mental health clinic, psychiatric emergency services, private practice, or in a hospital or community health center. So, lot’s of flexibility. They earn more than many other nurses and still get to be hands-on, prescribing meds and treating patients regularly.

Technical jargon: These nurses (known shorthand as PMHNPs) “diagnose, conduct therapy, and prescribe medications for patients who have psychiatric disorders, medical mental conditions or substance abuse problems. They are licensed to provide emergency psychiatric services, psychosocial and physical assessment of their patients, treatment plans, and manage patient care. They may also serve as consultants or as educators for families and staff. The PMHNP has a focus on psychiatric diagnosis, including the differential diagnosis of medical disorders with psychiatric symptoms, and on medication treatment for psychiatric disorders.”

To learn more about how this practice varies state by state, go here.