Rose Fox was intrigued by the challenges of psychiatric nursing and the opportunities to make a difference on a patient-by-patient basis that the field provides.

Rose says the best thing about being a psychiatric nurse is gaining an understanding of each individual’s mental illness and being able to assist in their recovery through positive goals and helping them gain a new outlook on their lives so that they may return to their community as functioning members of society. Those same interpersonal skills that Rose uses to help patients and their families also assist her in planning treatments with an interdisciplinary team.

For Rose, nursing extends beyond her current patients to the next generation. She says that she takes pleasure in hearing the comments of students who’ve visited the psychiatric unit and then declare their interest in entering the field of psychiatry or community service. And she finds great reward in her visits to middle schools to talk about the dangers and effects of drug abuse.