Reframing Misconceptions About the Role of Nurse Practitioners

In this candid conversation filmed at Psych Congress NP Institute 2025 in Orlando, Florida, Faculty Member Hara Oyedeji, APRN, PMHNP-BC, MSEd, addresses common misconceptions about the role of nurse practitioners (NPs) in psychiatric settings. With a focus on the benefits of a nursing education and the ability NPs have to nurture strong provider-patient relationships, Oyedeji empowers fellow NPs to recognize the unique impact they have as providers of psychiatric and mental health care. She also guides advanced practice providers (APPs) on reframing any stereotypes or negative assumptions they may encounter about their role as health care professionals. 

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Psych Congress Network: What common misconceptions have you encountered about the role of NPs, and how do you reframe those misconceptions? 

Hara Oyedeji, APRN, PMHNP-BC, MSEd: I think there's a lot of misconceptions about who nurse practitioners are and what we do. Yes, we have the ability to prescribe medications, to assess, and to be diagnosticians, and that's wonderful. But at the core and at the heart of it, we come from a nursing school of thought and that's a beautiful thing. We need to own up to that and embrace it. 

One of the things that I have heard in history—and I'm a true believer that words are power—is that nurse practitioners have been considered mid-level. I will tell you there's nothing “mid” about me at all, right? Any negative connotation that that might bring, we want to break down those stereotypes. We are advanced practice providers. And nurse practitioners are making a way – we have a way with our patients, we bring our whole selves to [our work]. We, and this is not to negate the work of other professionals in mental health and psychiatry, but nurse practitioners as nurses, are the number 1 trusted profession year after year for good reason. Our patients understand that what we've been doing is building a therapeutic relation from the beginning. We take and pair our ability to look at the whole context of the person in our nursing diagnoses, pair that with the medical training we now have as prescribers and APPs. That together makes for a beautiful union to better help our patients to recovery.

Hara Oyedeji, APRN, PMHNP-BC, MSEd, is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner currently working in outpatient care with experience in inpatient and psychiatric hospital settings. She serves as owner, clinician and clinical preceptor in her private group practice, Fortitude Wellness Group, and is the Chief Operating Officer and Medical Director of a CARF accredited Outpatient Mental Health Clinic, Greater Chesapeake Health and Wellness in Baltimore City. Hara completed her undergraduate degree at Rutgers University and her Master’s degree in education from Monmouth University in New Jersey. She completed her Master’s degree in nursing from the University of Maryland with her Post-Master's training as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner from Drexel University.

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