Sixth-semester student Anahid Gifford loves psychiatric nursing. Now, she’s becoming a young leader in the field.
She applied for the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) scholarship program on little more than a whim, and after being accepted, suddenly found herself on a short list of the best and brightest nursing students involved in the psychiatric domain.
APNA is an organization of nurses who specialize in psychiatric-mental health nursing. The group seeks “to be the unifying voice of psychiatric-mental health nursing,” bringing professionals together to shape psychiatric nursing leaders, support research, advocate for change, and otherwise advance the practice.
While many nurses have mixed feelings about psychiatric nursing, Anahid adores it. She says it matters to her because “it’s one of those fields that’s super underrepresented and misunderstood.” She says it’s too common for people to suppress concerns about emotional and mental health, even though such struggles are “normal and natural for everyone.”
“We [should] trust each other to understand each others’ burdens,” she said. For her, psychiatric care should be treated like caring for any other part of the body.
Anahid first heard about becoming an APNA scholar from Leslie Miles, one of her professors who specializes in psychiatric nursing. Each year, Professor Miles and her students travel to the APNA Conference to learn about current research and present their own work.
It just so happened that applications for APNA scholarship were active when Anahid took this class, and though she hadn{t considered it before, she decided to give it her all in hopes of being accepted.
Only after being selected did Anahid realize what an accomplishment it is. Out of hundreds of applicants, she is one of only fifteen undergraduate students chosen. These students hail from prestigious universities from coast to coast.
As an APNA scholar, Anahid will be a special guest at this year’s conference in New Orleans in October. She will join other scholars and attendees in hearing from leaders in the field, networking with prominent members of the psychiatric nursing community and learning to improve her own craft.
Being a scholar grants her exclusive access to communication channels with other scholars and renowned professionals. With these resources, she can receive personalized guidance and niche information for her psychiatric nursing work.
Anahid encourages other nursing students to take all the opportunities available to put themselves out there and be recognized in the nursing community. “Sometimes it can be daunting seeing something like this, but what do you have to lose?” she said.
Students have nothing to lose by pursuing opportunities like this, but what they gain if successful can bolster them as professionals and as envoys of Jesus Christ.
Congratulations, Anahid! See you in New Orleans.
