Nursing, Nursing Advanced Practice, Exam Prep
What’s the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification Exam Like?
With excerpts from The Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification Review Manual, by Raymond Zakhari, DNP, EdM, NP
The Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (Across the Lifespan) Certification (PMHNP-BC) validates your expertise in this specialty. Formerly, it was known as Family Psychiatric–Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Read on to understand what you’ll need to succeed for this exam.
The Format
Like many certification tests, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner-Board Certified (PMHNP-BC) certification exam is a computer-based test that you’ll take at a testing center.
Once you receive your Authorization to Test from the ANCC by completing an online application and having your transcripts validated, you’ll be able to schedule your exam.
To qualify, you must be a graduate of an accredited master’s, doctoral, or postgraduate NP program. The program must have included at least 500 supervised clinical hours in psychiatric-mental health.
The Questions and Time
You’ll have 3.5 hours to complete the 175-question test. Twenty-five of those questions are pretest questions that are not scored. Unanswered questions are marked as incorrect. Although most questions will be multiple choice, you may see drag-and-drop questions, extended multiple-choice questions, and hot spot questions.
- Drag-and-drop questions: In this format, you’ll be asked to match the choices that are alpha-numerically presented. This is common with questions about evidence-based practice or anatomy.
- Extended multiple-choice questions: In this format, you’re asked to pick more than one correct answer.
- Hot spot questions: You will be asked to identify a specific location in a diagram in response to a test question; for example, which lobe of the brain is responsible for executive functioning?
The Exam
Before the exam, you’ll have a chance to take a computer tutorial. When you take the actual exam, you can’t pause the exam once the clock begins, and when your time expires the test will shut down.
Detailed Content Outline
The test covers five domains. Questions can come from any of the domains at any point during the exam.
| Content Domain | Number of Questions | Percentage | Notes |
| Scientific Foundation | 30 | 20% | Tests knowledge of topics such as advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, psychopharmacology, and more |
| Advanced Practice Skills | 38 | 25% | Tests skills such as clinical interviewing, mental health screening tool selection and interpretation, and more |
| Diagnosis and Treatment | 37 | 25% | Tests knowledge of topics such as DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and complementary and alternative treatments |
| Psychotherapy and Related Theories | 22 | 15% | Tests knowledge of topics such as psychotherapy principles, change theories and more |
| Ethical and Legal Principles | 23 | 15% | Tests knowledge of such topics as Patient’s Bill of Rights, Scope of confidentiality, and more |
The Results
You won’t have to wait for your results – you’ll get a copy before you leave the test center.
Earning the PMHNP-BC credential marks a milestone in your career. This credential, valid for five years, establishes you as one of the most accomplished clinicians in the psychiatric-mental health field, a distinction of excellence in which you can take great pride.
You Got This!
Start studying today! For more study options, choose from our PMHNP certification review book and digital products, featuring abundant PMHNP practice questions to help you make the grade! Try a free version of PMHNP certification review for seven days.
Resources
ANCC Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Board Certification Examination Test Content Outline. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/~49eb43/globalassets/certification/certification-specialty-pages/resources/test-content-outlines/exam-35-pmhnp-tco-10-15-2018_for-webposting.pdf
ANCC Certification General Testing And Renewal Handbook. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.nursingworld.org/~4ac882/globalassets/certification/renewals/GeneralTestingandRenewalHandbook