UTC’s first PMHNP cohort prepares to bridge a mental health gap

The first cohort of UTC’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program stands outside Gordon L. Davenport Hall, wearing white lab coats and posing in a line against a brick wall on a sunny day.

Nurse Practitioner Program Director Amber Roaché (left) and PMHNP Program Director Jason Peter (right) stand with the first cohort of PMHNP students at their White Coat Ceremony. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jason Peter.

Nine students may not sound like a lot.

But in a specialty facing shortages, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s first Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) cohort will soon expand mental health access in the region.

The program began last fall. After a semester of online courses, the students are on campus pursuing their Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees. The eight-semester program requires 1,050 hours of supervised clinical experience and prepares students to sit for national board certification.

Dr. Jason Peter, Mary B. Jackson assistant professor and director of the PMHNP program, said the need for psychiatric providers locally has grown more urgent. He said the program was created after years of conversations with local providers who wanted UTC to offer a psychiatric mental health track.

“A lot of psychiatrists are retiring,” Peter explained. “I really think that mental health nurse practitioners are going to bridge the gap in patient care because there won’t be as many psychiatrists available.

“With the rising mental health concerns in our society, coupled with retiring psychiatrists, mental health nurse practitioners are just going to be in great need and it’s just going to continue to increase.”

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Click here to read about PMHNP students Christine Macias and Douglas Wilson.

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The first three semesters teach the foundations of a DNP and NP degree including assessment skills, health promotion and research methods. Psychiatry-specific coursework will begin in the fall.

Students will eventually study evaluation, diagnosis and management of psychiatric mental health clients, followed by psychopharmacology and principles of individual group and family counseling. The program requires 150 clinical hours dedicated specifically to therapy.

“Psychiatric nurse practitioners can be therapists,” Peter said. “I think that psych NPs who do provide more therapy are more effective because the evidence-based practices—therapy and meds together—are what work best for treatment.”

Career paths for PMHNP graduates are wide-ranging. Providers may work in outpatient clinics, inpatient behavioral health units, child and adolescent programs, geriatric psychiatry, substance use treatment centers or community mental health organizations.

Many PMHNP programs across the country are entirely online. Peter said UTC’s hybrid modality is still very flexible but provides the in-person component that is important for this program.

“What sets our program apart … we have individualized attention. We have smaller classes and faculty support, and we do have face-to-face lectures for those important topics,” he said.

The smaller cohorts allow faculty to work closely as they move through their doctoral projects, which are focused on improving psychiatric care and can be chosen by the students.

“I’m so excited to see what all of them are going to come up with as far as the practice changes they’re going to try to implement with their project ideas,” he said.

Peter acknowledged that the program is rigorous. Students are balancing coursework, clinical hours and, in many cases, part-time work in psychiatric settings. It is, however, designed to be doable.

“How do you eat an elephant?” he joked. “One bite at a time … It looks big and overwhelming at first, but we help you break it up into little bits and pieces so that it’s more manageable.”