It wasn’t long into her career that Abby McNeil, DNP, MSN, FNP-C, felt drawn to psychiatric nursing. Over the last 30 years, Dr. McNeil has amassed experience in practicing and teaching psychiatric mental health nursing with a focus on increasing access to care.
Dr. McNeil now brings that experience to the 鶹ҹ LHC Group • Myers School of Nursing as the school launches the MSN - Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner concentration along with the existing Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and Nursing Education concentrations.
Becoming a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Psychiatric nursing addresses the whole patient, an approach that came naturally to Dr. McNeil.
“In nursing school, when I got to my psych rotation, we were visiting a nursing home and one of my patients was very isolated and very depressed about leaving her home and her cats. So I went to a Rescue League and got a cat for the day and brought the cat to visit with the lady,” says Dr. McNeil. “I remember my instructor told me, ‘you're going to be a psych nurse.’”
But Dr. McNeil didn’t plan on becoming a psychiatric NP; she wanted to work in the ICU. And for many years, she did work in ICU and ER nursing.
“As I was working in that setting, patients would come in with psych problems, and I would always gravitate to those patients and sit down and just talk to them about what was going on with them. They just need someone to talk with, someone to really listen to them,” she says. “That's how I really got interested in psych."
At the time, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner programs like the online MSN, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner concentration, weren’t offered. In 1988, Dr. McNeil earned her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing and transitioned her practice, working across inpatient, outpatient, and community-based mental health settings, and in her own clinic as a certified FNP.
Creating Access to Mental Health Care
Spurred by her clinical practice as an FNP, Dr. McNeil became dual certified by completing her psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) certification.
She says even as an FNP, most of her practice was psychiatric-based care.
“Patients would come in for a cold or a migraine, and then I would screen for depression, and they would have depression but weren't seeing a mental health provider,” Dr. McNeil says.
There are several obstacles for those in need of mental health care, from long waitlists to insurance gaps or costs. Dr. McNeil became dedicated to closing that gap as both a practicing PMHNP and as an educator.
“It's so important that we educate and get trained psych mental health nurse practitioners and providers out into the field so that we can see more patients because access just isn't there the way it should be,” Dr. McNeil says.
Earning her certification as a PMHNP allowed her to care for patients “the way they needed to be cared for,” she says.
That care frequently includes integrated behavioral healthcare, carried out over time based on the patients’ unique and evolving needs.
"As a PMHNP, our main goal is to provide optimal care to that patient who has mental health issues or illness. When they come in, we’re assessing, evaluating, and developing a plan of care in combination with them, and then implementing that plan of care with them,” says Dr. McNeil.
Joining the Psychiatric Mental Health NP Program
Dr. McNeil joined the University in January 2022 as an assistant professor, teaching in the MSN, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner concentration. The psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program is designed to prepare registered nurses to undertake the multi-faceted continuum of care unique to psychiatric nursing.
The 48-credit-hour program includes online advanced practice nursing coursework in theory, pharmacotherapeutics, evidence-based practice approaches, health policy, and primary care, as well as specific courses in psychiatric mental health advanced practice including diagnosis, psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy.
Students also must complete a minimum of 600 precepted, direct patient care clinical hours in Louisiana.
“When these nurses graduate, they can expect to use everything they learned in getting their education, because when you're approaching someone who has psychiatric illness, you have to take a holistic approach and look at their whole body,” says Dr. McNeil.
“Being able to assess the patient and provide the care that they need, being involved and really getting to know them, it's not something that's done easily.”
For licensed registered nurses interested in specializing in psychiatric and mental health care, the 鶹ҹ LHC Group • Myers School of Nursing is now accepting applications for the MSN - Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner concentration.