After earning her Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) certificate from CUW in 2024, Stella Essien is working to achieve board certification so she can expand her scope of practice at Alliance Wellness Clinic.
Stella (Osuagwu) Essien currently works as a Certified Nurse Practitioner at Alliance Wellness Clinic, an outpatient Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) clinic in Bloomington, Minnesota. She is responsible for examining, diagnosing, and treating individuals affected with opioid and other substance use disorders. Following the acquisition of her PMHNP board certification, she will be able to also diagnose and treat any co-occurring mental health issues that arise among her patient population.
Stella is among the first individuals to graduate from CUW’s PMHNP program, which launched in 2023. Prior to the certificate program, Stella also completed Concordia’s online Master of Science in Nursing – Primary Care Nurse Practitioner degree program in 2014, opting for the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) track.
“I chose Concordia for my FNP and again for my PMHNP because the programs are second to none,” Stella says. “The coursework demands excellence. As a result, people and colleagues often ask me where I received my education because they are very impressed with my skillset and my practice style, which includes patient-centered, comprehensive, compassionate care.”
Despite both programs being entirely online, Stella says she could tell the course was designed from a distinctly Christian lens. Faculty would do things like post weekly Bible verses on Blackboard.
“It was evident that professors understood what the students were going through in juggling career, family, and education all at once,” Stella says. “They cared about us being successful and they cared about helping us be the best providers we can be as Christians.”
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