Treating Mental Illness With Morgan Murray

Many of us suffer from certain types of mental disorders, and treating mental illness early on is essential to help the individual. Reaching out to talk to someone, seeking medical help, or getting the proper diagnosis can help you in many ways.

And while no treatment can cure all, individuals can choose a combination of treatments that works best for them. 

Our Guest

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Morgan Murray. Morgan is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner from Baltimore, Maryland. Morgan has been a travel nurse since 2014 and worked across the United States.

She also owns a private mental health practice and works as a private contractor. She also is the co-author of ‘So you want to be a nurse,’ a how-to guide for success in nursing, travel nursing, and opening up your practice from A-Z.

We talk about the roles of a psych NP and how mental health issues are treated. 

QUESTIONS FOR GUESTS

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Looking forward to our conversation!

1. Morgan, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
   • Where has your nursing career taken you?
   • How was the transition to becoming a psych NP, and why did you choose psych?
2. How does it feel to own private practice?
   • How did you get started with it?
3. You grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. How was life there for you?
   • I spent a few weeks there, and it is similar to Chicago. Lots of drugs, homeless, and violence. 
   • Did growing up there push you in the psych direction, or is there an event in your life that inspired you to pursue psych?
4. As a psych NP, what do your day-to-day activities look like?
   • Many nurses want to become psych NPs. Can you offer some insight on schooling and what your career consists of?
5. You’re at the forefront of mental health. Are there specific mental health issues that are more prevalent than others?
   • What percentage of patients benefit from psychiatric drugs? We’ve heard it’s around 50%? 
   • Psychiatric medications alone do not cure mental illness. Are there adjusted therapies people do?
6. What are some positive mental health techniques nurses can do when they are stressed out, anxious, or depressed?
   • How can we stay healthy mentally? 
7. You’ve studied under financial experts such as Dominique Broadway and Jeremy Schneider; what was your biggest takeaway? 
8. You’ve also coAuthored in a few books. What made you decide to write books?

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

If you are interested in psychiatric nursing and want to learn more about it, you can follow Morgan on her Instagram @morgansandiego or TikTok @morgansandiego. You can also check out her website https://www.iambeyondmedicine.com/ and ebook at www.iambeyondmedicine.com/shop to learn more about the world of psychiatric nursing.

Watch the full episode on how to treat mental illness by clicking here 👇

TIMESTAMP:

00:00 Introduction
01:58 About the guest
04:05 Difference between an RN and an NP
06:52 Owning a private practice
10:30 Roles and responsibilities of a Psych Nurse Practitioner
12:10 Common mental health problems pre and post-pandemic
15:15 The much-needed change to improve our healthcare system
17:06 How effective are psychiatric medications?
18:51 Medication Side Effects
21:18 Dealing with side effects
23:51 Signs of a Getting Well Patient
26:53 ADHD
29:46 Selfcare routine
32:01 What made you decide to write books?
33:42 Being financial literate
38:57 Life Advices to share
40:44 Wrapping up the episode