By: Yale School of Nursing
“My first job out of nursing school was COVID nursing near Seattle,” says Batchimeg Erdenebaatar. “Welcome to adversity, challenges, and stress. While I was working there, almost half the nursing staff quit. I had to step into leadership roles.”
“That was very meaningful work. After that, I did some travel nursing in different states. I learned a lot and did trauma nursing as well as acute care. I realized that I really liked the hands-on aspect of nursing and really enjoyed talking to my patients.
“I thought, ‘It would be nice if I could just focus on talking to them and supporting them mentally, supporting their mental health and making them feel safe, heard, and really be there for them emotionally.’”
“I realized I needed to follow my passion, so I applied for the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program at Yale.”
The inclination to be a mental health nurse was there, but so was an obstacle. “I'm Mongolian,” says Erdenebaatar, whose family came to the U.S. when she was a teenager. “There is a cultural stigma against going into mental health, so I had to fight against my family a little bit. But I stood my ground and talked to my mentors and I talked to people who worked in mental health.
“I realized I needed to follow my passion, so I applied for the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program at Yale. I'm so glad I chose Yale because I wanted to focus on being a student and learning, rather than being part of a big city and its busy lifestyle. Even though there are hard days, it’s what I’m happiest doing.”
Reflecting on her experience as a YSN student, Erdenebaatar highlights opportunities for both professional and personal growth, and the ways she has taken advantage of those opportunities.
“I feel as though I've grown so much professionally and personally. I got involved as the YSN representative to the university-wide Graduate and Professional Student Senate, was an RN-entry representative on YSN’s student government organization, and served on the Asian Professional Council. I’m just glad I put myself out there.”
As she graduates from Yale School of Nursing in May as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, that will not mark the end of her educational journey. She plans to explore professional opportunities on the West Coast.
After traversing two cultures and years of nursing education, Erdenebaatar’s sights are set on fulfilling her passion for helping people by listening.
“It’s a very complicated area of human endeavor. Unlike other medical work, you can't test for a lot of things and there are no obvious markers for certain things, so it really requires trying to understand what’s going on in someone's mind. It's like a puzzle you can never stop solving.”