As a mental health professional, helping patients get the care they need is essential to your work. However, for clinicians living in states with greater barriers to practice, connecting patients with the right resources and care isn’t always possible. Whether you’re bogged down with administrative tasks, restricted by red tape, or frustrated with access issues, you may feel the strain of not being able to practice at the top of your license.
Thankfully, telehealth makes it easier for patients and providers to connect, regardless of geographical and regulatory barriers. This level of access allows patients to get the best care possible and enables providers to practice at the top of their licenses.
Keep reading to learn more about the challenges of working in restrictive states and how telemental health can help you operate at the top of your license.
Top challenges for providers working in restricted states
So, what challenges might you encounter if you’re a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) practicing on-site in a restrictive state? Let’s take a closer look at a few:
- Maintaining collaborating physicians: If you’re a PMHNP working in a state that requires a collaborating physician, you understand there’s always a chance they might suddenly be unable to provide oversight that would allow you to practice at the top of your license – and leaving patients without access to proper care. In some cases, finding a new collaborating physician can take months.
- Minimal patient resources: In certain states, there are more restrictions and fewer resources for patients. These limitations can keep a provider from practicing to the full extent of their license and inhibit their ability to do more for patients.
- Potential for burnout: Working on-site in a restrictive state can be bad for morale. While the goal is to provide the best possible patient care, some patients may have little to no options based on state restrictions.
Practicing behavioral health remotely removes the limitations placed on providers based on where they live. For example, if you live in a state with a highly restricted practice environment, telemental health allows you to live where you want and still have autonomous practice, without the need of a supervising or collaborating physician. Additionally, when working with an organization like Iris Telehealth, you’re ensured a collaborating physician if necessary.
Along with these benefits, it can also help you work with a population you love.
Help the population you love without limitations
As a behavioral health provider, you’ve likely spent a lot of time figuring out what population you wanted to work with. However, depending on where you live, making the most of your education and providing care to the specific population you love might not always be an option. Remote behavioral health work makes it possible for you to work with the communities you’ve always wanted to impact, regardless of where you or your patients are in the country.
Additionally, some organizations, like Iris Telehealth, offer job matching services that keep your clinical preferences in mind, letting you choose what population you want to work with and whether or not you want to work in an autonomous state. So you don’t have to choose between working with the communities you love and working at the top of your license.
Want to learn more about the job matching process? Check out our guide for all the details!
Gain more support for top of license work
Working in telemental health can help eliminate everyday tasks that keep you from working at the top of your license and give you a leg up in areas that will help support your practice. Here’s how:
- Care team collaboration: Having a care team of professionals you can lean on for expertise is essential. At Iris, our provider network is expansive and creates a resource for advice and support. This access to other psychiatrists, case managers, and social workers ensures you always have the support you need and lets you focus on appointments and follow-ups. It also means you don’t have to worry about other tasks that fall outside your scope.
- Less admin work: Licensing and credentialing takes a lot of time and attention. That’s why working with an organization that takes care of that process is highly beneficial. At Iris, we help our providers get licensed in the states where they want to work and take care of all the tedious parts of that process. That way, you can focus on what they do best – providing quality patient care.
- Diversify your skill set: When you work remotely, you can work with populations you may not have had the opportunity to work with otherwise. This access gives you more diversity in your patient panel work, allowing you to tap into different demographics and expand your knowledge and skill set.
- Connect with top organizations: When working with a telehealth solution like Iris, you can trust that you’re getting connected with the leading organizations in the country. We ensure all our partner organizations are aligned with our standards for appointment times, have thought through how telehealth will work for them, and will support our providers.
Additionally, if the organization is strictly remote, we ensure they’ve thought through how their patients will get things like vitals and weight measured if they’re being seen from home, what their route to care will be like, and have whatever they need for appointments.
Where Iris Telehealth fits in
At Iris, we believe that our providers should be celebrated and applauded for the work they do. If you’re an LCSW, PMHNP, or psychiatrist interested in telemental health work, contact us today.
