How the PMHNP-BC became the most powerful growth story in nursing certification — and what it means for the profession. Part of Nurse.org’s coverage of our new Nursing Certification Index.
Across all certification levels — nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, and bedside RN — there are now nearly 78,000 credentialed psychiatric-mental health nurses in the United States. A certified workforce of this scale simply did not exist a decade ago.
At the center of that number is the PMHNP-BC — the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certification issued by ANCC. In 2016, 6,443 nurses held it. By 2025: 58,578. That is an 809% increase in nine years. Among the credentials tracked in the Nurse.org Nursing Certification Index* — the first comprehensive compilation of U.S. nursing certification data across 19 certifying organizations — none come close to that growth rate.
Here is what the data shows about how the psychiatric-mental health nursing workforce got here, and where it is heading.
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Accreditation
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CCNE
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Prerequisite
RN Required
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Accreditation
CCNE
Location
Online
Prerequisite
RN Required
Total certified nurses across all psychiatric-mental health credential levels
Credential
Full Name
Certifying Org
Credential Type
Total Certified
% of Total
PMHNP-BC
Psychiatric-Mental Health NP (across the life span)
ANCC
NP — Active
58,578
75%
RN-BC (Psych)
Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing
ANCC
RN Specialty — Active
10,900
14%
PMHS
Pediatric Mental Health Specialist
PNCB
RN Specialty — Active
883
1%
PMHNP-C
Psychiatric Mental Health NP
AANPCB
NP — Active
1,717
2%
PMHNP-A
Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health NP
ANCC
NP — Renewal Only †
3,127
4%
PMHCNS-A
Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health CNS
ANCC
CNS — Renewal Only †
2,537
3%
PMHCNS-C/A
Child/Adolescent Psychiatric-Mental Health CNS
ANCC
CNS — Renewal Only †
483
1%
Total — All Psych-MH Credentials
78,225
100%
† Renewal Only — credential accepts no new exam takers; holders decline as they retire or let credentials lapse. Source: Nurse.org Nursing Certification Index 2026, ANCC, AANPCB, and PNCB data.
The surge in PMHNP certification does not exist in a vacuum. It reflects something happening in American healthcare that the data makes hard to ignore.
According to a 2024 brief from HRSA, 69% of all rural counties in the United States have no psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner at all. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis estimated that nearly 170 million Americans lived in a mental health professional shortage area as of December 2023, with average wait times for behavioral health services reaching 48 days. In 2024, approximately 62 million U.S. adults — 23% of the adult population — had a mental illness, and nearly half did not receive treatment. HRSA projections suggest the country will be short nearly 15,000 PMHNPs by 2037 if demand for behavioral health services remains elevated.
Universities have responded: AACN’s 2023–2024 Enrollment and Graduation Report identified 374 PMHNP programs awarding MSN, MSN-to-DNP, and BS-to-DNP degrees — nearly 100 more than existed a decade ago.
In 2025, 10,743 nurses sat for the PMHNP-BC exam — more than the number who sat for the FNP-BC at ANCC in the same year (7,719). The PMHNP-BC now accounts for nearly half — 49% — of all ANCC NP certification exams taken annually. Add AANPCB’s PMHNP-C (1,333 exam takers in 2025) and the combined PMHNP exam pipeline reached 12,076 candidates in 2025. That pipeline shows no sign of slowing.
PMHNP Certification Growth at a Glance
Credential
Org
Year
Total Certified
Exam Volume
Pass Rate
PMHNP-BC
ANCC
2016
6,443
1,497
89%
PMHNP-BC
ANCC
2023
40,193
8,791
90%
PMHNP-BC
ANCC
2025
58,578
10,743
82%
PMHNP-C
AANPCB
2024 †
584
699
82%
PMHNP-C
AANPCB
2025
1,717
1,333
82%
† AANPCB PMHNP-C launched April 2024. Source: Nurse.org Nursing Certification Index 2026, ANCC and AANPCB data.
The entry of AANPCB into PMHNP credentialing in 2024 adds an important dimension to the story. Two separate certifying organizations now offer a pathway to PMHNP certification — ANCC’s PMHNP-BC, the established credential with nearly a decade of growth behind it, and AANPCB’s PMHNP-C, which reached 1,717 certified nurses within two years of launch. Both carry an 82% pass rate in 2025, suggesting candidates are well-prepared regardless of pathway.
This two-board dynamic mirrors what already exists in family nurse practitioner credentialing, where both ANCC and AANPCB certify large populations. For psychiatric-mental health nursing, the emergence of a second credentialing pathway signals that the specialty has matured to the point where multiple boards see a viable and sustainable certification market.
The PMHNP-BC did not grow in a vacuum. Before it became the dominant pathway, ANCC offered a more fragmented set of psych credentials — the Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health NP (PMHNP-A), the Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health CNS (PMHCNS-A), and the Child/Adolescent Psychiatric-Mental Health CNS (PMHCNS-C/A). All three are now Renewal Only — they accept no new exam takers. And all three are shrinking:
Together these three legacy credentials hold 6,147 certified nurses in 2025, down from 9,468 in 2016 — a 35% decline as holders retire or let credentials lapse without replacement. This is what a successful credential transition looks like in the data: the old structure quietly contracting as the new one absorbs the pipeline entirely. Every nurse who might once have pursued a PMHCNS or PMHNP-A is now sitting for the PMHNP-BC instead.
The PMHNP-BC pass rate held at 90% in 2023 before slipping to 82% in 2025 as exam volume surged past 10,000 candidates annually. An 82% pass rate still compares favorably to many nursing credentials — the CCRN (Adult) ran at 72% in 2025 — but nurses should know the exam is not a formality and that pass rates have declined as volume has climbed.
The AANPCB data offers an interesting finding though: for the PMHNP-C, how you enter the specialty matters for your first-time pass rate. In 2025, post-graduate certificate candidates passed at 86% while Master’s-prepared candidates passed at 74% — a 12-point gap. Post-graduate candidates also represented the largest share of exam takers at 789 of 1,333 (59%). DNP candidates fell in the middle with a 78% pass rate.
PMHNP-C: Exam Volume and Pass Rate by Education Pathway (2025)
AANPCB PMHNP-C first-time candidates — initial exams only
Education Pathway
Exam Volume
% of Total
First-Time Pass Rate
Post-Graduate Certificate
789
59%
86%
Master’s
503
38%
74%
Doctorate (DNP)
41
3%
78%
Total
1,333
100%
82%
Data from AANPCB 2025 Certification Statistics (initial exams only). Pass rates reflect first-time candidates. Post-Graduate Certificate candidates outperform Master’s-prepared candidates by 12 percentage points. This education-level breakout is captured in the Nurse.org Nursing Certification Index. Source: AANPCB 2025 Certification Statistics.
The mental health boom is, in the data, almost entirely an advanced practice story. The RN-BC (Psych) — the bedside nursing credential for psychiatric-mental health nursing, also issued by ANCC — held essentially flat over the same period: 9,972 certified nurses in 2016, 10,900 in 2025, a 9% gain over nine years. While nearly 60,000 nurses pursued the PMHNP-BC, the certified psych RN workforce barely moved.
PNCB’s PMHS (Pediatric Mental Health Specialist) credential has grown from 389 certified nurses in 2016 to 883 in 2025 — a 127% increase — a signal that mental health credentialing has been expanding into pediatric nursing steadily alongside the broader PMHNP surge.
Whether the flat RN-BC (Psych) reflects a credential-value problem, a workforce pipeline issue, or simply a profession that is routing its mental health expertise toward advanced practice rather than bedside certification is a question the data raises but cannot fully answer.
The PMHNP remains one of the most in-demand specialties in all of nursing. The structural conditions that drove a decade of PMHNP growth — 69% of rural counties without a PMHNP, expanding full practice authority state by state, telehealth broadening reach — have not changed.
A few practical points the certification data adds:
The exam is more competitive as volume climbs. 90% in 2023 became 82% in 2025. Preparation matters more, not less, as the pool grows.
Two pathways exist, and your educational background affects your odds. If you are considering the AANPCB PMHNP-C, the data suggests post-graduate certificate candidates have a meaningful pass rate advantage over Master’s-prepared candidates (86% vs. 74% in 2025). Understanding which pathway fits your background is worth considering before you register.
The specialty has depth beyond the PMHNP. The full psych-MH credentialed workforce of 78,225 nurses spans NP, CNS, RN, and pediatric credentials. The PMHNP boom is the headline story, but it exists within a broader ecosystem of psychiatric nursing expertise at every level of practice.
Related reading on Nurse.org:
🤔 Are you a certified PMHNP, currently in a program, or considering the specialty? What do you wish you’d known before you started? Share your experience in the comments below.
*Methodology & Data Notes
Data in this article is drawn from the Nurse.org Nursing Certification Index 2026, the first comprehensive compilation of U.S. nursing certification data across 19 certifying organizations. The education-pathway breakout data is sourced from AANPCB 2024 and 2025 Certification Statistics PDFs. The Index is updated annually.
Published on
May 27, 2026
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