One of the most rewarding healthcare careers you can embark upon is that of a psychiatric nurse practitioner or mental health nurse. It will give you the chance to make a difference in the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the country, and you’ll never struggle to find work or earn a decent living. There are lots of opportunities to specialize and progress – but what are the steps you need to take to get there in the first place?

You’ll need to qualify as an RN

Before you can move into mental health, you’ll need to acquire generic professional nursing skills. This means obtaining a degree like Master of Science in Nursing, which normally takes two to three years, depending on how much time you can commit to study. It will require you to obtain a certain level of clinical experience, so you’ll need to spend time working on a ward. After graduating, you’ll need to take the NCLEX-RN exam and acquire a license to practice as a registered nurse.

You’ll need to gain a Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Certificate

Once you’re practicing as an RN, you’ll have the option of obtaining a certificate in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. To do this, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate your competence in an exam. It helps to have some experience working with mentally ill people, so many people choose to volunteer with relevant charities before taking the exam. After getting your certificate, you can work at a basic level for up to five years, gaining valuable knowledge that will help you with the next stage of qualification.

You’ll need to take a master’s degree with a psychiatric specialty

If you want to take your career in mental health nursing further, you’ll need to obtain an MSN with a specialty in psychiatric mental health care. Again, this will require both study and clinical hours, but if you’ve already found employment in the psychiatric sector, then you may be able to count hours worked there towards the requirement. Speak to your supervisor to clarify your options. Once you have your MSN, you can immediately apply for certification as a fully qualified psych NP, or you can go on to take a DNP if you want to work at a higher level within the sector.

You’ll need to keep up your skills

Although every state does it slightly differently, staying licensed as a psychiatric nurse practitioner will require you to undertake a certain number of hours of additional education in your specialty every year. This will make sure that your skills stay sharp. You will also need to renew your license at regular intervals.

Getting through all of this may sound like a lot of effort, but you’ll learn a lot of really interesting things in the process and you can also earn as you go. Once you’re fully qualified, you’ll be in a very strong career position, and you’ll have something that most people long for: the chance to make a living while doing good in the world.

Tired of scrolling aimlessly through social media? Do most of your days go in you doing nothing productive? Well, it’s time to change that.  It is time for you to get a job or a skill. Unlike the age-old myth that you NEED a degree to get a good job in today’s day and age, upgrading your skills might do just the trick. You don’t need to attend years of college and hours of lectures studying for what you can learn in a much shorter period. The world is developing and it’s breaking from its old traditions. This is one of them. Whether you want to learn programming, digital marketing, or one of the current hot topics – blockchain, you can do it through your laptop. You don’t even need to get out of your house to learn these things. How convenient is that! 

As the world moves ahead and breaks the norms, we see that knowledge is becoming accessible more easily to people around the world. The rise of the internet has made it possible for anyone from anywhere to access information. When there’s information all around you, it might get confusing as to where you should seek the knowledge from among the various available platforms. Online courses have carefully selected information for you to learn from. The main objective of most of the online courses is to teach skills rather than just bombarding you with information. This sets it apart from the traditional education system. Taking any one of the many software development courses available may be just what you need to get yourself started and put your first step in the tech industry. Thousands of courses are available online on different platforms. If you want to learn skills and even receive a certificate that you can add to your resume then we suggest using Simplilearn. Simplilearn is an online platform with hundreds of certificate courses for you to dig in. To make it easier for everyone to access, they even have a mobile app that you can install and start your course.

The certificates that you receive after the completion of these courses will put you ahead of everyone else, giving you a higher chance of landing a job. Even though in these articles we gave examples of tech or software related courses, there are other business and leadership related, marketing, and even project management courses available on Simplilearn. Such platforms make it possible for people of any stream to jump across and learn about the other streams. Which means you don’t need to be a science student to learn to code. It is education for all and more importantly, equal opportunity for all. Upgrade your skills online and then put them into practice, that’s how you will sharpen them.

Keep learning and growing!

There are many known and unknown compounds present in our world with different properties, structure and uses. Aluminium is one such element having a variety of compounds when combined with other elements. 

The name aluminium originated from the ancient name for alum (potassium aluminium sulphate), a lumen (Latin, meaning bitter salt). It is a soft and lightweight metal with a dull silvery appearance. Therefore, aluminium is among the most challenging metals on earth to refine. One of the compounds formed by aluminium with chlorine is known as aluminium chloride or aluminium trichloride( AlCl3). It is a pure compound formed as a result of the exothermic reaction between metallic aluminium and chlorine. In this article, we can learn more about the chemistry of this compound.

Preparation of aluminium (III) chloride

Aluminium trichloride is formed when aluminium metal or aluminium hydroxide is treated with hydrochloric acid. The reaction mixture is evaporated to get the hydrated aluminium trichloride.

2Al + 6HCl → 2AlCl3 + 3H2

Al(OH)3 + 3HCl → AlCl3 + 3H2O

Properties of aluminium (III) chloride

Here we discuss both the physical and chemical properties of aluminium trichloride.

Physical properties

• Low melting and boiling point is one of the physical properties of aluminium chloride.
• At a temperature of 180°C, it sublimes
• It is a very poor conductor of electricity at its molten state
• Anhydrous aluminium chloride is a colourless, hygroscopic substance.
• At pressure above 2.5 atm, aluminium trichloride exists as a liquid

Chemical properties

• It is considered a powerful lewis acid
• Used as an industrial catalyst
• When excess of sodium hydroxide added, it produces metal aluminate

AlCl3 + 4NaOH → NaAlO2 + 2H2O + 3NaCl

• The vigorous reaction will occur when reacted with water
• It produces hydrogen fumes in moist air

The reaction of aluminium chloride with water

As mentioned earlier, aluminium (III) chloride reacts vigorously with water. It produces a hissing sound when contacted with water and is highly hygroscopic in nature. At the reaction time, the Cl– ions are replaced with H2O molecules and form hexahydrate [Al(H2O)6]Cl3. 

Al(H2O)6Cl3 → Al(OH)3 + 3HCl + 3H2O

Aluminium oxide is formed when the temperature is increased to 400°C from the hydroxide. 

2Al(OH)3 → Al2O3 + 3H2O

McAfee Process

This process is one of the preparations of aluminium (III) chloride By heating a mixture of alumina and coke in a current of chlorine, aluminium chloride is obtained

Al2O3 +3C + 3Cl2 → 2AlCl3 + 3CO2

The preparation on an industrial scale is given by chlorinating aluminium around 1000 K

2Al + 3Cl2 → 2AlCl3

Uses of Aluminium (III) chloride

• In the Friedel craft reaction, anhydrous aluminium trichloride is used as a catalyst.
• It is used to attach aldehyde groups or aromatic series on a ring
• In the process of polymerisation and isomerisation, aluminium trichloride is used for light molecular weight hydrocarbons.
• For the synthesis of bis arene complexes, AlCl3 is mixed with aluminium along with arene.
• Industrially, for the manufacturing of rubber and lubricants, this compound is widely used.
• Used in the pharmaceutical, medical fields
• Used in dyes, perfumes and drugs.

Summary

Aluminium (III) chloride is a compound formed when aluminium and chlorine react together. It has the chemical formula AlCl3. This compound has a wide range of uses, industrially and non-industrial phases.