National survey of psychiatric mental health advanced practice nursing: development, process, and finding.

A survey was sent to all Psychiatric Mental Health (PMH) Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) who had a registered e-mail address with the American Nurses Credentialing Center, resulting in 1,899 usable surveys. The practice of two groups of APRNs was examined and contrasted: those certified to treat children and adolescents and PMH-APRNs certified only to treat adults. Our findings raise concerns about the numbers of PMH-APRNs treating children. Considering the national demand for mental health professionals prepared to treat children, the specialty must move to increase the number of qualified APRN child providers.