Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Position Title

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master’s-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western’s greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff and alumni who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive.

In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships among diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, students, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

The Student Health Center supports Western’s mission, which states that together with our students, staff and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

The Psychiatric ARNP provides mental healthcare services for students under the direction of the WWU Student Health Center Medical Director. This is a permanent, full‑time, 9‑10 month cyclic position.

• Psychiatric assessment, diagnosis and treatment for a wide variety of conditions, including bipolar and psychotic disorders, ADHD, mental health emergencies.
• Provide prescription and medication oversight, and consult for crisis intervention.
• Obtain medical history, perform physical assessment, establish diagnoses, provide medical consultations, order and interpret lab and other studies, arrange appropriate referrals.
• Prescribe medications or other treatments and arrange follow‑up for patients based upon diagnoses. Help to coordinate emergency care and hospitalization when appropriate.
• Perform virtual consultations with patient, family and/or specialists as indicated.
• Educate patients about their diagnoses, treatment options, prognosis and appropriate preventive care.
• Accurately and fully document histories, physical exams, behavioral observations, diagnoses, telephone consultations and treatments according to clinical and medical records protocols.
• Personally review and electronically sign all reports of labs, x‑rays/other studies, consultation reports and transferred medical records.
• Regularly update each patient’s electronic chart as indicated.

• Provide in‑service and consultation for Student Health Center staff and campus partners.
• Provide on‑call coverage on a rotating schedule for psychiatric concerns including medication refills, critical lab results and calls from community providers.
• Participate in quality improvement programs to maintain and improve quality of care.
• Attend and participate in meetings and committees as requested by supervisor.