Issaiah Wallace β18 chose Shenandoah because of the excellent Psychiatric Mental-Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Post-Graduate Certificate program the Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing offers.
βShenandoah offers a variety of multidisciplinary opportunities to learn from others, while providing a comfortable atmosphere for learning,β said Wallace.
One of Wallaceβs fondest memories of his time at the university was when his nurse practitioner class would get together and go out to dinner. This fostered friendships that he still has today.
Wallace is a PMHNP for at an inpatient psychiatric facility. He is also an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Prior to this, he was a nursing instructor at Salem University and clinical supervisor at .
In his position as a PMHNP, Wallace helps acute mental illness and addiction patients in their recovery, which he finds very rewarding. As an educator, he βloves to see the lightbulb moments in students and their transition from student to colleague.β
In 2020, Wallace was featured in the WBOY 12 News spotlight series. Most recently, he wrote for an academic anthology concerning addiction in Appalachia and spoke on psychopharmacology at a local conference.
βShenandoah gifted me with the knowledge and skills to provide care to underserved populations,β said Wallace. βTheir emphasis on education motivated me to continue that vision in the next generation of healthcare professions.β
Wallaceβs advice to students who are considering entering into the nursing field is: βTreat your time as a nurse, prior to advance practice, as a βresidency,β a time to gain deeper understanding into complex interventions.β