Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)

Covenant Clinics has served Las Cruces as the first and most trusted urgent care provider for twenty years. We are now building an integrated behavioral health program that will position this clinic as the psychiatric home for the region: the place where emergency departments send their discharges, where primary care providers refer their complex patients, and where veterans from Fort Bliss finally find care that does not involve a six-month waitlist.

We are looking for a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner who wants to build something that does not yet exist in southern New Mexico. You will not inherit a panel. You will create one. You will not follow someone else's protocols. You will write them, alongside a behavioral health consultant whose career includes advising the President of the United States on national drug policy.

If you want a quiet job where you see the same fifteen patients a week and leave at five, this is not it. If you want to be the person who builds a behavioral health program across multiple states and shares in the revenue you generate, keep reading.

The Clinical Model

This is a dual-role position. You will function as a full-scope provider across both psychiatric services and urgent care, with time allocated based on patient demand. New Mexico grants full practice authority to nurse practitioners. You will practice independently.

Behavioral Health Scope:

• Conduct comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and develop evidence-based treatment plans for depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorders, and co-occurring conditions
• Prescribe and manage psychotropic medications across the full formulary, including controlled substances
• Initiate and manage Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder, including buprenorphine induction and maintenance
• Serve as the psychiatric follow-up destination for emergency department discharges throughout the Las Cruces and El Paso corridor
• Develop and implement SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) protocols integrated into every urgent care encounter
• Build referral pipelines with VA and TRICARE for the Fort Bliss veteran population, the third-largest military installation in the United States
• Provide measurement-based care using validated tools: PHQ-9, GAD-7, Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, AUDIT-C
• Collaborate with Dr. Barthwell on clinical protocol development, grant submissions, and program strategy

Urgent Care and Primary Care Scope:

• Evaluate and treat acute illness and injury in a high-volume walk-in setting
• Manage common primary care conditions including hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory illness
• Perform DOT physicals and occupational health examinations
• Provide telemedicine consultations across state lines as we expand into Texas and beyond

The Mentorship

Your behavioral health consultant is Andrea G. Barthwell, MD, DFASAM:

• Former Deputy Director for Demand Reduction, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
• Former President, American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)
• Internationally recognized addiction treatment physician with decades of clinical and policy experience
• Expert witness in addiction medicine forensic cases nationwide
• Currently serving as Medical Director for Behavioral Health and Addiction Treatment at Covenant Clinics

Dr. Barthwell will work with you directly on clinical protocols, patient care decisions, and program development. Her commitment to this role is hands-on, not advisory. You will have weekly strategy sessions, access to her professional network, and the benefit of mentorship that does not exist at any other clinic in this region.

Your Medical Director is Jody Mitchell, MD — a family medicine physician with a sports medicine fellowship, licensed in all fifty states, and a clinical advocate for GLP-1 weight management. He brings deep experience in NP-led clinical models and treats the physician-NP relationship as a partnership, not a hierarchy.

The Technology

Covenant Clinics is building a proprietary clinical platform in-house alongside our current systems. This means:

• Behavioral health charting designed around how psychiatric care actually works, not retrofitted from a primary care template
• Clinical documentation tools designed to reduce charting time so you can focus on patient care
• Contestable auto-fill being built specifically for behavioral health: because what a patient tells the intake worker, the nurse, and the provider are often three different things, and those discrepancies are clinically meaningful
• SBIRT screening being integrated into the triage workflow as part of our behavioral health launch
• Feature requests measured in days, not quarters

The Growth Path

Covenant Clinics is part of Arcs Health, a multi-state healthcare organization pursuing expansion into Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. Your role starts in Las Cruces, but the behavioral health model you build here will be replicated at every new location. Clinical leadership opportunities scale with the organization. You are not filling a seat. You are creating a department.

Compensation

Competitive base compensation commensurate with experience and board certification. Behavioral health profit sharing: you participate directly in the revenue generated by the services you build. CME stipend and protected time for continuing education. This is a structure designed for providers who want to build wealth through clinical excellence, not just collect a paycheck.

Required Qualifications

Education:

• Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from a CCNE- or ACEN-accredited program with Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specialty track

Licensure and Certification:

• Board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC) through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• Active New Mexico APRN license with prescriptive authority, or eligibility for licensure
• New Mexico Board of Pharmacy controlled substance prescriptive authority, or eligibility
• Active DEA registration with Schedule II-V prescribing authority, or eligibility
• Current BLS certification
• MATE Act 8-hour training completed, or willingness to complete prior to start date

Clinical Competency:

• Minimum two years of clinical experience in a psychiatric or behavioral health setting
• Demonstrated competency in prescribing and managing psychotropic medications
• Experience with substance use disorder treatment, including MAT protocols and buprenorphine prescribing
• Proficiency in evidence-based modalities: CBT, motivational interviewing, and crisis intervention at minimum
• Comfort with measurement-based care using standardized psychiatric instruments (PHQ-9, GAD-7, CSSRS, AUDIT-C)
• Ability to manage a mixed caseload spanning psychiatric care and urgent care medicine

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
• Certified Addictions Registered Nurse - Advanced Practice (CARN-AP)
• Training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) or DBT-Linehan Board Certification
• Training in trauma-informed care principles (SAMHSA framework) or EMDR certification
• Experience in integrated primary care and behavioral health settings (PCMHI model, FQHC, or similar)
• Experience serving veteran and military populations (VA, TRICARE, CHAMPVA)
• Bilingual fluency in English and Spanish
• Experience with dual-diagnosis and co-occurring disorder treatment
• Prior experience building or expanding a behavioral health program

About Covenant Clinics

Covenant Clinics has operated in Las Cruces, New Mexico since 2006. We were the first urgent care clinic in the region. Twenty years later, we remain the standard. Our providers are selected, not hired. Our team is small by design. We run a high-performance clinical operation where every provider carries real responsibility and every member of the team is accountable to the same standard of care.

We are part of Arcs Health, a healthcare organization expanding across New Mexico, Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. Our infrastructure is built on proprietary technology, not vendor contracts. Our clinical model integrates urgent care, primary care, behavioral health, telemedicine, DOT services, and pediatrics under one roof. We are not trying to be everything to everyone. We are trying to be the best at what we do.

Location: 3961 E Lohman Ave, Suite 34, Las Cruces, NM 88011
Schedule: Full-time, flexible scheduling. Clinic hours 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM, 7 days a week.
Work Location: In person

To inquire about this position:

Lorraine Perez, Office Manager
(575) 556-0200
lorraine.perez@covenantclinics.com