PMHNP Employment Readiness Program
Train in What Actually Matters
Traditional NP programs are not sufficient to prepare you with the clinical experience and specialized training required to offer the exceptional, holistic, person-centered care that is the hallmark of the nursing model. Just like in your RN program, when you complete your NP program and enter into the work-force, you find that your program provided you with the basics so that you could understand how to continue to learn and grow upon graduation. Unlike RN employment, NPs enter the workforce without the support of mentorship, internship, or required onboarding training that new RNs receive. Not only that, NPs quickly find that they are expected to work in a metrics driven environment where they are required, due to time limitations, to use the medical model rather than the nursing model of care. Even RNs with years of experience in psychiatry find the NP role to be drastically different. Without support and additional training, NPs are relegated (again) to becoming the workforce that funds the medical industrial complex-with less pay, less respect, and more burnout. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Instead of just moving on to do more of what’s not working in a new role—like rushing through appointments, handling too many cases at once, taking on more risk because there’s not enough time to give good care, doing extra administrative work without pay, and feeling isolated due to competition and separation from specialists—a nurse practitioner (NP) employment employment readiness program offers the time, support, and sense of community needed to develop your skills and confidence. This allows you to focus on what truly matters: becoming a skilled clinician who can help clients achieve real mental wellness, with the caring and patient-focused approach that nurses are known for.
MOVE FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
At the completion of the Joy Spring Mental Health Employment Preparation Program, you will have learned essential real-life application of clinical diagnostic, assessment, medication management, and therapy skills so that you can translate the theoretical models you learned in school into confident, integrated, and efficient patient care. Your Nurse Practitioner education taught you WHAT to do. The Joy Spring Employment Readiness program teaches you HOW to do it while filling in the holes your traditional program left out.
Important topics covered:
- “Talk Therapy” and how to include cortical processing in medication appointments. Specific modalities covered in-depth: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
- Integrative Trauma-focused subcortical processing approaches including Brainspotting and Internal Family Systems
- Functional Lab Assessment-how to assess and manage hormonal contributors to mood symptoms, and how to assess and manage gut/microbiome contributors to mood symptoms
- Perinatal Mental Health
- Therapy interventions for OCD.
PREPARE FOR A CAREER YOU WILL LOVE
Sound familiar? You’ve spent significant time, energy, and money in your advanced education only to discover that your school failed to teach some core components of becoming a NP, you can’t find a job, can’t find a job you enjoy, are more burned out than ever, and are on a path to lose your work/life balance even more than you did as a RN. On top of that you are now having to navigate the new role in isolation.
Graduates of the Joy Spring NP Employment Readiness program have the option to apply for PT (20 hour minimum) or FT (30-40 hour) W-2 employment within the practice under a residency support model with ongoing clinical support and supervision for 12 months. Employees of Joy Spring Mental Health receive excellent compensation and benefits with scheduling flexibility and administrative support. Our practice is determined to see both patients and providers succeed! More importantly clinicians at Joy Spring Mental Health have options to advance their career and meet their financial goals outside of seeing more patients and working longer hours.
PROGRAM FORMAT
- Recorded lessons, handouts, “cheat sheets”, short-cuts, and resources in the training portal
- Assigned required reading (books supplied upon acceptance into program), required discussion board participation for text
- Weekly live virtual case consultation meetings (required): Psychotherapy consultation Mondays 8-9am EST, Medication Management/Lab Evaluation Tuesdays 2-3pm EST, General Q&A Thursdays 1-2pm
- Continuing Education Trainings Provided: Month 1- Brainspotting Phase 1 and Functional Lab Assessment, Month 2- ACT with Russ Harris and Perintal Mental Health with PSI, Month 3-Comprehensive IFS
A 6-month post-graduate employment preparation program for PMHNPs and PAs focused on integrative psychiatry, therapy-enhanced medication management, and professional development.
💲 Tuition: $8,000 (reimbursable with 24 months post-training residency model employment commitment)
📍 Remote | 📆 Rolling Start Date
⚠️ Minimum Requirements
To be considered for this program, applicants must meet the following criteria:
You must have completed and passed your national certification exam (ANCC or AANP).
You must have an active unencumbered RN and NP license in the state of NC or have submitted your application in order to be eligible for employment-based post tuition reimbursement.
Degree must be from an accredited state or private university that includes on-campus or hybrid instruction.
If your program was fully virtual, it must have been offered by a university that also offers an on-campus model.
Minimum GPA in MSN program: 3.4
Applications from for-profit, virtual-only programs will not be considered unless:
You are dually certified, and
Your initial program was completed in an accredited institution with on-campus or hybrid instruction offering.
🕒 Estimated time to complete application: 30–45 minutes. Please note this application includes both essay and video requirements. PLEASE PREPARE YOUR ESSAYS AND VIDEOS IN ADVANCE BEFORE BEGINNING YOUR APPLICATION
- Essay 1:
Please describe in detail a patient population and/or diagnosis that you are passionate about and why.
You might begin your answer like this:“I’m passionate about helping [specific population] clients achieve [desired outcome]. My goal is to make sure that these patients—and the providers who care for them—understand that…”
Your response should reflect both personal and professional insight into the needs of this population and how your values align with their care.
- Essay 2:
Using your essay response as inspiration, please create the copy for a simple, brief patient handout written in language that is easy for clients to understand.
Your handout should:Focus on a topic relevant to your chosen population (e.g., trauma recovery, postpartum anxiety, OCD basics, etc.)
Include supportive, validating language
Help patients understand something important about their experience or treatment
May include 1–2 practical tips or self-care tools
- Video 1:
Please record a brief video (5 minutes or less) as if you were introducing yourself to a prospective patient. This is not a professional sizzle reel — it’s a window into how you would show up with warmth, clarity, and intention in the first few minutes of therapeutic connection.
Your video should:
Communicate your approach to patient care
Reflect your tone, energy, and personality
Highlight how you hope to help the population you wrote about in your essay
Be authentic, patient-friendly, and free of medical jargon
- Video 2:
Please record a second video (up to 10 minutes) addressing the following three questions. This video is an opportunity to reflect more deeply on your values, clinical philosophy, and aspirations as a future leader in psychiatric care.
In your video, please address:
What is your understanding of the Nurse Practitioner model of care?
(Describe how this model differs from traditional medical approaches and what values or principles it prioritizes.)How do you conceptualize social justice within the context of mental health care?
(Consider issues like access, equity, cultural humility, stigma, or systemic barriers.)What impact do you hope to have on the NP profession?
(Think long-term: leadership, innovation, advocacy, mentorship, etc.)