Nursing students embark on summer externship in psychiatric-mental health nursing

Seniors Meagan Van Eerde and Chelsea Havelock (front row, 3rd and 4th from left) join other externs and Coordinator Dr. Ben Evans, RN APN (back row, right) in the Psychiatric Student Nurse Externship at Bergen Regional Medical Center.

The Villanova students joined 10 other nursing students who were selected from an applicant pool of students from Pennsylvania and New Jersey schools. This externship offers the students an opportunity to deepen their interest in the specialty of psychiatric-mental health (PMH) nursing.  They spend 175 hours in the clinical setting working as part of the multidisciplinary team.  Students have the opportunity to rotate through two different inpatient services during the summer as well as an observational experience in the forensic (jail) unit.  The externs work closely with the Unit RNs and assist in direct patient care, individual and group therapy and have the opportunity to attend relevant in-service education.  Additionally, student externs attend a biweekly roundtable which offers the opportunity to hear from clinical experts on topics related to the field, such as the role of the psych nurse generalist, the role of the PMH Advanced Practice Nurse, ECT, dual diagnosis of addiction and mental illness and social work-nursing collaboration.