Robbie McCauley, Assistant Professor and Director, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program, Graduate Programs Director
Health & Life Sciences Building, (540) 545-7267, rmccaule87@su.edu 

The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Program is designed to provide the nurse with the necessary knowledge, skills, values, meanings and experiences to assume the role of a PMHNP in a variety of clinical settings. The program consists of didactic and clinical course content essential to provide psychotherapy to individuals, families and groups within hospitals and community settings. Differential diagnoses, health promotion and psychotropic medication management (prescriptive authority) for the psychiatric mental-health patient is addressed in this curriculum. The PMHNP student will complete approximately 600 clinical hours during this program of study. Shenandoah University collaborates with other universities to complete coursework in the role of PMHNP. The PMHNP program is offered on the Winchester campus and at the ICPH site in Fairfax, Virginia in a synchronous hybrid format.  Graduates of this program are eligible to take the appropriate  national certification exam. 

In addition to the credits of required MSN core courses, the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner requires additional specialty credit hours.

Graduates of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Specialty Track will be able to:

1. Employ clinical reasoning to integrate social and scientific theories, research and evidence-based practice principles in the diagnosis, treatment and management of behavioral and psychiatric mental health problems across the lifespan.
2. Collaborate with interprofessional teams to enhance recovery of populations with behavioral and mental health illnesses.
3. Apply ethical and legal standards in the delivery of behavioral and psychiatric mental health care as an advanced practice nurse.
4. Apply evidence-based practice standards to the utilization of psychopharmacologic, psychotherapeutic and complementary interventions in the treatment of acute and chronic behavioral and psychiatric mental health problems across the lifespan.
5. Demonstrate competencies of an advance psychiatric mental health nurse in the provision of care, the advancement of the profession and in the development and implementation of mental health policy on the local, state and national level.