The new program will prepare advanced practice nurses to diagnose, treat, and support patients with mental health conditions across a wide range of clinical settings.
As demand for mental health services continues to grow across Virginia and the nation, Mary Baldwin University is launching a new Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program through the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences — a move university leaders say is directly tied to urgent healthcare needs in rural communities.
The new program, launched under the leadership of Vice President and Dean and Chief Nursing Officer Shelia Talbott and directed by Rosie Taylor-Lewis, PMHNP, will prepare advanced practice nurses to diagnose, treat, and support patients with mental health conditions across a wide range of clinical settings.
Responding to a Growing Rural Mental Health Need
“It’s a major gap,” Talbott said. “You find in practice that about 50% of your patients have a mental health need. It’s not unusual for a patient in our area to be referred to a mental health clinician and have to wait six months.”
The program builds on the rapid growth of MBU’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, which launched its first cohort in 2024 and already enrolls approximately 60 students. Talbott said the university’s healthcare partners consistently identified psychiatric care as one of the region’s greatest unmet needs.
“One of our clinical partners is Augusta Health,” Talbott said. “We sat down to wonder, ‘How can MBU serve our community?’ and this was the biggest need that all of our local and regional partners identified.”
For Taylor-Lewis, the new program responds to both a national challenge and a deeply local one.
“The demand for mental health services has never been greater,” Taylor-Lewis said. “Across Virginia and the nation, communities are experiencing unprecedented needs related to anxiety, depression, trauma, substance use disorders, and serious mental illness. At the same time, many individuals face long wait times or must travel significant distances to access psychiatric care.”
Flexible Pathways for Working Nurses
The PMHNP program is designed for working nurses and will offer multiple entry points depending on a student’s educational background. Nurses with associate degrees will be able to complete an RN-to-BSN pathway while pursuing their first master’s degree, while BSN-prepared nurses can enter directly into the master’s-level PMHNP track. Advanced practice nurses who already hold a master’s degree can pursue a post-master’s certificate to become certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners.
Talbott said the university is intentionally creating pathways for nurses who want to remain connected to underserved communities.
“Really, we’re looking for that student that wants to make a difference in their community — to serve that community with mental health needs,” she said.
Graduates may work in outpatient and inpatient psychiatric settings, substance abuse treatment programs, pediatric mental health, sexual assault response, and telehealth services.
Training for Modern Healthcare Delivery
The program’s clinical model also reflects the realities of modern rural healthcare delivery. Students will rotate through diverse clinical settings including outpatient clinics, inpatient facilities, pediatric placements, and telehealth environments. While MBU has already developed partnerships with providers in Virginia, Talbott noted that the university also supports students completing placements in Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
“Telehealth is incorporated into our FNP program, and that’s built into the PMHNP curriculum as well,” Talbott said.
The launch comes amid growing conversations nationwide about shortages in behavioral healthcare providers, particularly in rural communities where access to psychiatric care can be limited or delayed.
Taylor-Lewis said MBU’s flexible hybrid model is designed to help nurses advance their education without leaving the communities that need them.
“Our goal is not simply to educate providers, but to strengthen communities by increasing access to high-quality mental health care where it is needed most,” Taylor-Lewis said.
Talbott believes institutions like MBU can play an important role in helping address those gaps.
“These multiple solutions will address a huge need in our community, especially for a relatively small institution like MBU.”
Expanding Healthcare Education and Community Conversation at MBU
The university is also continuing to expand related healthcare initiatives that respond to workforce and community needs. Alongside the PMHNP launch, Murphy Deming is introducing a nurse educator track designed to help address nursing faculty shortages across the country. According to Talbott, more than 60,000 students were turned away from nursing programs nationally in 2024 due to a lack of qualified instructors.
This fall, MBU will also host the Virginia Association of Community Psychiatric Nurses conference, bringing students, practitioners, educators, community members, and guests from universities across the Commonwealth to campus for conversations focused on psychiatric mental health care in Virginia.
The conference will explore the different avenues available within psychiatric care, giving students and early-career professionals a broader understanding of the pathways they might pursue while also opening the conversation to community members interested in mental health care access. Talbott said the event connects naturally with MBU’s growing health sciences portfolio, including its medical social work program, and reflects the university’s commitment to preparing professionals who can respond to complex behavioral health needs from multiple directions.
“One of the reasons we’re able to host this conference is because Dr. Nina Beaman is the president of that organization,” Talbott said. Beaman, a member of MBU’s faculty, has been “a psychiatric nurse, a forensic nurse, and an incredible asset and leader in nursing,” according to Talbott.
For Talbott, the PMHNP program, nurse educator track, medical social work connections, and VACPN conference all point to a larger institutional response to a critical need.
“This is an explosion in solutions to this huge need in our community,” Talbott said. “And for an institution as relatively small as we are to make this impact is enormous.”
Taylor-Lewis said long-term success will be measured not only by the number of graduates the program produces, but by the difference those graduates make in the communities they serve.
“Success will be reflected in healthier communities, expanded access to mental health services, and a growing network of PMHNP graduates who are advancing the profession through clinical excellence, innovation, advocacy, and compassionate care,” Taylor-Lewis said.