NURS 765 - Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Practicum I, II, & III: Across the Lifespan

This course provides supervised clinical training in the role of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner working with populations across the lifespan, including children, adolescents, adults and older adults in a variety of settings. Experiences emphasize clinical decision-making and evidence-based treatment modalities in an interprofessional environment with focus on competencies in the ethical, collaborative, and evidence-based treatment for children, adolescents, adults and geriatric populations with acute and chronic mental health disorders.

Focus of this clinical course is on psychiatric assessment, diagnosis, and a variety of evidence-based therapeutic treatment modalities relevant to individuals, groups, and families; emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention strategies for children, adolescents, adults and geriatric populations.

Practicum hours are defined as:

1) Direct contact with patients/family in the delivery of advanced practice care, which may include synchronous supervised direct patient care in accordance with the Radford University Preceptor and Clinical Site Affiliation Agreement.

2) Completing patient care activities (e.g. clinical documentation, preceptor consultation, interprofessional collaboration) in support of direct care.

3). Completion of a minimum of 150 hours in each population category, e.g., child and adolescent, adult and geriatric. Total clinical hours required across the life span are 540 hours with 40 hours available for approved educational activities.