Johnsrud to start NP career at Sanford Behavioral Health

It was a big moment last week for Rozlynn Johnsurd, of Goodridge. She headed south to Mobile, Alabama, where she graduated from the University of Southern Alabama with a Family Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Degree. 

Along with earning her degree, she was also inducted into Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society and received the Leadership Award at the Nursing Convocation on Friday, December 13th. 

Rozlynn graduated from NCTC with her RN degree in 2004. After working as an RN at Dakota Clinic/Merit Care Clinic/Sanford Health for 10 years, she went back to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at Minnesota State University Mankato. To date, she has worked at Sanford Clinic in Thief River Falls for almost 15 years, starting as an Internal Medicine Float Nurse, then moved into the Anticoagulation (Coumadin) Clinic, and most recently an RN Care Manager in Internal Medicine.

Rozlynn started the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program at the University of South Alabama two years ago. “People are always curious as to why I chose USA,” she acknowledged. “Their program really worked for me financially as they have in-state tuition for all online students and I only had to be on campus two weeks throughout the whole program, which allowed me to continue to work full time.” Rozlynn did her internship (600 clinical hours both inpatient and outpatient) with Dr. Mark Tsibulsky and Jason Nupdal, DNP. She says her employer, Sanford Health Thief River Falls, was very flexible and allowed her to make up hours so that she didn’t run out of PTO to use for clinical time. 

Rozlynn graduated from USA on Friday, December 13th, with a Family Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner degree, which allows her to provide psychiatric care (assessment/diagnosing/ therapy/medication prescribing) to patients across the lifespan. She has signed a contract with Sanford Behavioral Health to be a psychiatric provider in both their outpatient clinic and inpatient unit. “I passed my NP boards earlier this month. Now that I’ve graduated, the credentialing process with the state of MN will start,” she added. Her tentative start date at the Behavioral Health Campus is January 27th, 2020.

Rozlynn laughed and said it feels like she’s been a student her whole life! She reflected, “It took me a long time to commit to what I wanted to do because I felt selfish knowing it would be a tough couple years for us if I did it. But then I finally realized, a decision you make for your family is never a bad decision; they are my reason.”