Frontier Nursing University’s flexible, online psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner program aims to prepare competent, compassionate, and well-equipped Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs). FNU offers a graduate PMHNP specialty track that can be pursued full- or part-time while completing a Master of Science in Nursing or a Post-Graduate Certificate.
The curriculum of FNU’s PMHNP program is structured to provide a comprehensive foundation in assessing, diagnosing, and treating psychiatric disorders. Emphasis is also placed on health promotion and disease prevention. Before students embark on their clinical journey, FNU ensures they are thoroughly prepared through a didactic curriculum that not only equips students with essential skills, but also builds confidence in their abilities.
“Our focus is on training innovative nurse practitioners who have a passion for serving their communities, and we accomplish that with a unique blend of didactic coursework and clinical experience. Our students value the flexibility of our distance education program as it allows them to stay in their home communities while advancing their careers to improve access to care,” said Dr. Kevin Scalf, Department Chair of the Department of Psychiatric-Mental Health.
A standout feature of FNU’s PMHNP program is the Clinical Bound experience, a five-day immersive skills intensive held on the university’s campus in Versailles, Kentucky. This unique opportunity allows students to refine their clinical skills under the guidance of experienced faculty before beginning their clinical practicum.
Central to the Clinical Bound experience are the sophisticated clinical simulations designed to replicate real-world scenarios encountered by PMHNPs. These simulations provide a safe yet realistic environment for students to apply their knowledge and skills. FNU’s simulation rooms closely resemble actual clinical settings, enhancing the authenticity of the learning experience.
A key component of FNU’s clinical simulations is the use of standardized patients (SPs). These individuals, trained to portray specific psychiatric conditions or symptoms, enable students to practice patient interactions in a controlled setting. Through scripted scenarios, students engage in comprehensive assessments, develop treatment plans, and hone their therapeutic communication skills.
During Clinical Bound, faculty members facilitate discussions, peer-learning activities, and practice sessions to maximize student engagement and learning. Immediate feedback provided by faculty and SPs allows students to reflect on their performance and identify areas for improvement.
One of the distinctive aspects of FNU’s Clinical Bound is the integration of technology to facilitate remote learning and observation. Using SimIQ software, students not directly involved in the simulation can observe their peers’ encounters in real-time from nearby classrooms or remote locations. This innovative approach promotes collaborative learning and allows for helpful feedback from both faculty and peers. By offering in-person clinical simulations and integrating SimIQ software, students are equipped with the necessary tools to interact with patients not only in a traditional in-person setting but also in a telehealth environment. This adaptability is increasingly crucial as healthcare access continues to evolve and telehealth becomes more prevalent.
These recordings serve as valuable resources for post-simulation debriefing sessions, where students can evaluate their performance and gain insights into their clinical practice. Through guided reflection, students deepen their understanding of complex patient interactions and refine their clinical skills for future practice.
The success of FNU’s Clinical Bound and the clinical simulation offered during the experience is a testament to the university’s commitment to excellence in PMHNP education. By combining hands-on clinical training with cutting-edge simulation technology, FNU prepares its students to meet the evolving demands of mental healthcare delivery.
FNU psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner students have an overall ANCC certification exam pass rate of 98% compared to the national overall ANCC pass rate of 90%. As graduates of FNU’s PMHNP program, students emerge as compassionate and culturally competent providers ready to address the mental health needs of diverse, rural and underserved populations.
To learn more about FNU’s PMHNP program, visit frontier.edu/psych-mental-health-nurse-practitioner.
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Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).