Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Watch the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner video to learn more about the program.
Whatever role you seek as an advanced practice nurse, you’ll need knowledge, skills and experience. You’ll also need to be able to tap into information systems that help you stay current with today’s fast-paced health care environment. You’ll find all of this at Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing, recognized nationally for excellence. OHSU’s School of Nursing is ranked among the top 10 graduate schools of nursing in the country according to U.S. News and World Report.
The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specialty focuses on the promotion of mental health for individuals, families, and groups across the lifespan. Psychiatric mental health nursing involves education, research, and practice directed at the treatment of mental illness and optimizing mental health. PMHNPs work in partnership with their clients to provide care for the whole individual using nursing science and psychological theory to understand how mental health affects overall health.
Mental health is defined by Healthy People 2010 as the ability of individuals to negotiate the daily challenges and social interactions of life without experiencing cognitive, emotional, or behavioral dysfunction. Study in this specialty field includes treatment and prevention of mental and emotional problems and mental disorders arising from interaction among biological and neurophysiological vulnerabilities, psychological and developmental factors, and psychosocial and physical environmental stressors. Interventions within the scope of the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner are emphasized, including evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches that facilitate the development of clients’ intrapersonal, interpersonal and system competencies, as well as the prescription and management of psychotropic medications.
Upon graduation, PMHNPs work in a variety of settings including community health centers, public health departments, hospitals, prisons, clinics, businesses, physician offices, health maintenance organizations, government facilities, independent nurse practitioner offices, and schools of nursing.
