Karuna Mizusaki

What are you studying as a graduate student?

Currently, I am a second semester student in the accelerated post-baccalaureate nursing program at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland.

Why did you choose to major in Psychology and how has that affected your career thus far?

I chose to major in BCN because it’s the best of both worlds. My favorite psychology courses were developmental psych and pathopsychology, but I really loved my natural science classes such as physiology and biochem as well. The major itself helped me realize that I would enjoy working in a psych-related healthcare setting.

What was your career path like?

I started undergrad completely undecided on what I wanted to do after graduation. The only things I knew were that I loved working with kids and wanted a career related to psychology.

I started working part-time as a nurse tech on the inpatient child psychiatry floor at Mott during my junior year at U of M. This unit was where I fell in love with psychiatric nursing. During my senior year, I decided to apply to post-baccalaureate nursing programs so that I can work as a psych nurse and eventually go to even more school to become a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse practitioner.

Although I regret that I didn’t know about psychiatric nursing before I started undergrad, it’s little known that psychiatric nursing is completely different from other types of nursing. Being a psych nurse means that you are a nurse, therapist, social worker, behavioral psychologist, and prescriber all at once. It wasn’t until I worked as a psych nurse tech where I began to really understand that. The path that brought me to it gave me plenty of opportunity for reflection and learning from challenges.

What advice do you have for students and recent alumni who are interested in pursuing a career similar to yours?

My advice to students majoring in psychology who want to work in healthcare is to shadow. The best and worst thing about psychology is that you can do so many things with a psychology degree. I spent a lot of summers shadowing doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses to really hone in on what career is best for me.

How do you use your psychology undergraduate experience in your work?

Psychology is everywhere, and especially in the healthcare setting you will constantly come across it: whether it’s through interactions with the patient or their family. Understanding the pathophysiology and social impacts of psychiatric disorders have helped me in clinical rotations because my nursing school curriculum doesn’t focus on psychology as much.

What has contributed most to your career success?

I attribute finding my career path through shadowing and my coursework, but I think having meaningful experiences related to psychology outside the classroom gave me confidence in my major. My experience at Mott was invaluable; I wouldn’t be in nursing school had I not worked with incredible nurses who became my role models. I was also very involved with Camp Kesem, which is a free summer camp entirely run by U of M students for kids with a parent affected by cancer. My experiences as a Camp Kesem counselor affirmed that I want to spend my life on work that makes people in difficult times, especially kids, feel supported.

What is the best career advice that you have received?

The best career advice I’ve ever gotten to this day is “you’ll never be good at something you don’t like”. It’s in our intuition to know what work we enjoy and don’t enjoy, but it’s up to us on whether we recognize that now or years down the road.