In the area of mental health nursing, the specialty of employee assistance program nurse is relatively new. Companies offer employee assistance programs to address a variety of workplace and personal issues — from drug and alcohol issues to divorce, absenteeism to anger management.

“An employee assistance program nurse is a whole different specialty,” said Sandra Harman, RN, C, CEAP, director of the
employee assistance program at Newnan Hospital. “We may counsel people one-on-one or in their family group to help them deal with a personal issue. Or, we may work with an employee to handle a difficult situation at work. It’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”

Before coming to Newnan Hospital in 1990 to start its employee assistance program, Harman worked in a variety of psychiatric settings: inpatient care, rape crisis, outpatient mental health. Two years after she founded the program at Newnan Hospital, which was begun to serve hospital staff exclusively, Harman’s department accepted its first outside clients.

Today, the EAP at the hospital has contracts with 16 companies, handling emotional wellness training for supervisors and employees, management training and conflict resolution, the drug-free workplace program, counseling for employees for personal and workplace-related issues and anger management.

“This is very different than working on the medical side of nursing,” she said. “We have a direct impact on the emotional well-being of people. We help them cope with what’s going emotionally.

“In a clinical hands-on environment, a nurse treats a wound or injury and can see the results of healing. With psychiatric nursing, we may help start the process but it continues for a long time.”

Harman said that she enjoys the fast pace of her job. “There are so many situations that we see, from helping people with personal issues that affect their work, such as divorce or depression, to dealing with a difficult office situation through anger management or communications between the employer and the employee.”

As an EAP nurse, Harman may be called into a company to help manage an onsite employee trauma, or she may counsel an employee one-on-one in her office. She teaches anger management classes and trains supervisors at the workplace in communications.

“Our work is more shortterm because we deal with a variety of people in a wide range of situations,” she said. “You have to be able to multi-task.”

The pay, she said, is on par with that of a registered nurse, but an EAP nurse must have psychiatric nursing credentials. Harman also holds a certification in employee assistance program nursing.

Harman is on call 24 hours, seven days a week, but says she doesn’t mind. “We don’t get that many [after-hours] calls,” she said, “but when we do, we know it’s serious.”