With over 18 years in psychiatric mental healthcare, my journey has taken me from housekeeping to Chief Nurse Officer. I’ve worked on locked psychiatric units, navigated crisis situations, cared for some of the most complex patients, and led teams through the realities of behavioral healthcare. Along the way, I gained something no traditional textbook could give me: real-world experience.

But the story behind this manual goes much deeper.

After becoming seriously ill with mold toxicity, pneumonia, and a severe sinus infection, my health declined and my memory began to fade. Suddenly, the knowledge and skills I had spent years learning, practicing, and teaching became difficult to recall.

So, during my recovery, I began to write.

I wrote down what I knew, what I taught, what I experienced, and what I never wanted to forget. Page by page, those notes became something much bigger.

The Psych Nurse Orientation Manual was born during my healing.

What started as a way to preserve nearly two decades of psychiatric nursing knowledge became my mission to help the next nurse, student, technician, and leader enter behavioral healthcare with something I wish every psych professional had:

A practical guide for what really happens beyond the textbook.