More of this Feature • Air Force Job Descriptions • USMC Job Descriptions

Join the Discussion Talk About Military Jobs

Related Resources • Joining the Military • Enlisted Jobs

Elsewhere on the Web • Joining the Air Force • Joining the Army • Joining the Navy • Joining the Marines • Air Force OTS • Air Force ROTC • Air Force Academy

AFSC 46P4, Staff
AFSC 46P3, Qualified
AFSC 46P1, Entry

Specialty Summary. Provides services to promote and maintain optimal mental health, prevent mental illness, manage mental and physical disorders, and to diagnose and treat human responses to actual or potential mental health problems. Related DoD Occupational Group: 6E.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Provides mental health nursing care. Works with individuals, families, groups and communities to assess mental health needs, develop diagnoses and plans, implements and evaluates nursing care. Designs and implements programs that foster mental health, assess dysfunction, assist individuals to regain or improve their coping abilities, and prevent further disability. Monitors patients undergoing detoxification from alcohol and drugs. Assists in planning, providing, and evaluating comprehensive mental health services. Identifies community resources and guides individuals and families in their use. Supports, conducts, and uses nursing research to improve health care delivery.

Provides leadership and clinical assistance to other nursing personnel. Manages patient care unit and clinic activities. Coordinates staff assignments. Encourages staff participation in community programs promoting population mental health. Assists mental health care team members in identifying teaching and learning needs related to clinical care, role, and professional development.

Specialty Qualifications:

Knowledge. Knowledge is mandatory of: mental health nursing process, individual and family dynamics in health and during illness; therapy skills in individual, and group modalities; and theories of personality development, human behavior, psychopathology, diagnoses, chemotherapy, psychotherapies and physiological response to alcohol and drug abuse withdrawal.

Education. The following education is mandatory as indicated:

For entry into this specialty, graduation from an accredited school of nursing acceptable to the Surgeon General, HQ USAF.

For award of AFSC 46P3A, a Master’s degree in psychiatric or mental health nursing.

Training. None.

Experience. The following experience is mandatory for award of the AFSC as indicated:

46P3. A minimum of 12 months of experience in mental health nursing assignments, including work with patients in individual and group therapy.

46P3A. A minimum of 24 months of experience in mental health nursing, 12 months of which must be on active duty in the Air Force.

NOTE: Time spent in completion of postgraduate courses in mental health nursing is creditable toward experience requirements.

Other. None.

Specialty Shredouts:

A.............Mental Health Nurse Specialist. Manages acute and chronic mental health conditions through assessment, diagnosing, planning, and prescribing nursing actions within Psychiatric Nursing specialty parameters.

Return to Air Force Jobs Menu

Above Information Derived from AFMAN 36-2105