story and photo by Van Mitchell, Staff Writer
Brooks Winn is passionate about working in a community health setting, where he can address the unique mental health needs of diverse populations.
The Perkins native is currently enrolled in Oklahoma City University’s Kramer School of Nursing (KSN) Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) track. He is scheduled to graduate in July 2025.
“I wanted to do psych from the beginning,” he said. “However, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do post-grad. There for a while, I thought I might want to be a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist or go on and get a Family Nurse Practitioner degree. I had a friend who was in the FNP program at OCU and told me that they were going to start a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program and thought that I would be good at it and strongly encouraged me to apply for the program, and so I did.”
The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) track presents education focused on improving mental health care for patients across the lifespan. Emphasis is on the promotion of mental health through assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of behavioral problems, mental disorders, and comorbid conditions in a variety of healthcare settings. Practice settings may vary but include inpatient care in hospitals or outpatient care in other clinical settings.
All BSN-DNP program tracks have minimal residency requirements. Coursework is delivered in a variety of formats including online, synchronously, asynchronously or a mix of both, and in person in the classroom.
Winn is currently a Registered Nurse in Care Management at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, where he collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to develop and implement individualized care plans, focusing on both the medical and social aspects of patient care.
“What I do with this job is I work with doctors, I work with physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, patients and their family members,” Winn said. “I’ve been trying to help identify any needs the patient might have upon discharge, so that we can get those needs met before the patient leaves the hospital, so that patients and their families feel comfortable and confident in their discharge and feel like they can go home and be successful in the continuity of their care.”
Winn graduated from Perkins-Tryon High School in 2013, and enrolled at Oklahoma Baptist University, before transferring to Oklahoma State University.
“I was in biochemistry, molecular biology, pre-med, and from there decided to go into nursing and transferred to the University of Central Oklahoma, where I graduated with my bachelor’s in nursing in 2019,” he said.
Winn started his nursing career at Mercy in 2020 before being accepted into the DNP program at OCU.
Winn credits his supervisors at Mercy Hospital with allowing him to work and go to school.
“I have an amazing support system. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without my supervisors at work, and my professors. I make sure that I am communicating with them regularly, asking for help when I need it, and I just know that I can only do so much and do the best that I can.”
Winn said family played a part in influencing him to pursue nursing as a career.
“What drew me into the medical field is my father Eddie Winn, who is a pharmacist with the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma,” he said. “What really made me want to be a doctor or a nurse was spending the time in the hospital when my grandmother was sick with cancer and interacting with those nurses and those doctors on a weekly basis, and just seeing how wonderful they are and how much of a difference they can make in one’s life.” Winn said he enjoys being a male nurse in a female-dominant field.
“It’s a privilege to work with women who are strong and do so much for their families and their patients, and I think that it’s an awesome experience to kind of be sort of the outlier,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be a piece of the diversity in the field.”
Winn said he has enjoyed his time at OCU and encourages anyone interested in nursing to look at the Kramer School of Nursing.
“The experience has been great. The professors are wonderful. They constantly go above and beyond for all the students,” he said. “I have some awesome people that I get to see every day in the program that work hard as nurses, parents, friends, that continue to push me through the program. Anybody who is even thinking about going to get their advanced nursing degree, I would highly recommend considering Oklahoma City University as their first choice, because the staff and the environment is so conducive to learning, and they are going to ensure that you succeed. It’s a wonderful program.”
For more information about Oklahoma City University’s Kramer School of Nursing (KSN) call 405-208-5917 or visit www.okcu.edu/nursing.
