As coronavirus cases are surging, so are reports of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. But even as mental health professionals are needed more than ever, those who graduated from one Fresno State nursing program are being told to return to school. The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate program allows nurse practitioners to provide psychiatric care. But because of an administrative error, the Fresno State program was never accredited, and all 60 former graduates were told in early 2019 by a credentialing agency that their certifications were in jeopardy and that they’d need to repeat their training. “I was completely shocked,” says psychiatric nurse practitioner Joyce Weckl, who graduated from the Fresno State program in 2011. “I had been practicing all of these years, and all of a sudden to get this letter…it just seemed so bizarre.” Weckl runs a private psychiatric practice in Ventura County, where she estimates that repeating the one-year, virtual program
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