Alden Bush
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner & Doctoral Student
Alden Bush was born and raised in Miami, Florida to a Honduran family. He is a first-generation American and first-generation college graduate. His early childhood with ill loved ones caused Alden to want to pursue psychiatry from an early age and pushed him to want to learn more about the human brain, mind, and body. Although he began his career in medicine through a pre-med program at Universidad Iberoamericana School of Medicine in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, unforeseen circumstances resulted in the school losing access to the U.S. Federal Direct Loan Program which forced many to depart. To continue his dream, he transferred to the University of Florida for his undergraduate studies in psychology followed by a Master of Public Health degree with a focus in practice and management from the University of New England. While finishing his public health field practicum in Honduras, a former medical school classmate put nursing on his radar.
Alden decided to pivot his career to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. The holistic aspect of nursing, coupled with the community health-centered curriculum he found in Columbia University’s Master’s Direct Entry Program for Non-Nurses enabled him to launch his nursing career thanks to the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and Rudin Opportunities Nursing Scholar programs. When New York City became one of the first COVID-19 hotspots in the country, Alden leveraged his nursing student status to work as a nursing assistant and conduct COVID-19 visitor screenings at New York Presbyterian Hospital to help limit symptomatic visitors from entering the hospital. He also authored an opinion piece to cancel the student debt for COVID-19’s frontline providers and co-created Art in the Time of Crisis to provide an outlet for the trauma, stress, anguish, and related emotions from the pandemic and racial injustice impacting students, faculty, and staff.
One of the biggest problems in healthcare right now is visibility of people of color, particularly in the field of psychiatry…being able to speak fluently in Spanish and serve and advocate for patients in psychiatry and mental health that speak Spanish is invaluable...becoming a psychiatric NP as a person of color is something that will completely help to change your local community and the national standard.
After obtaining his registered nursing license in September 2020, Alden began his role as a vaccination administration nurse for the Community Mass Vaccination Program at the Fort Washington Armory and subsequently with the Institute for Family Health’s Care for the Homeless Program. Alden is currently a doctoral student in the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program and was recently named a 2021–2023 Jonas Scholar in Minority Health and a HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education Training Program Intern. Throughout his time at Columbia Nursing, he has served numerous roles including as a University Senator, a member of the Student Council E-Board, and serving on committees dedicated to anti-racist pedagogy and culture. Alden values nursing’s holistic approach to disease and its emphasis on individuals’ lived experiences. He is an outspoken advocate for health justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. As a doctorate-prepared psychiatric nurse practitioner, he aspires to provide comprehensive mental and primary health care in minority and safety-net communities.
Further Resources
View Alden Bush’s Nurse You Should Know Video here.
Connect with Alden on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Alden’s unique nursing career path here.
Sources
We sourced the above information from Alden Bush and Columbia University School of Nursing.
Learn More
To learn more about inclusion in nursing and be part of the national discussion to address racism in nursing, check out and share the following resources:
Know Your History
- Nursing CLIO to engage with historians and scholars committed to deep work around historical accuracy in healthcare and nursing.
- American Association for the History of Nursing to attend monthly webinars on topics of nursing history, view the calendar here.
Examine Bias
- NurseManifest offers live zoom sessions with fellow nurses on nursing’s overdue reckoning on racism and a page to sign their pledge.
- Breaking Bias in Healthcare is an online course created by scientist Anu Gupta, to learn how bias is related to our brain’s neurobiology and can be mitigated with mindfulness.
- Revolutionary Love Learning Hub provides free tools for learners and educators to use love as fuel towards ourselves, our opponents, and to others so that we can embody a world where we see no strangers.
Support & Advocate
- Critical Conversation on Health Equity and Racism Toolkit from the American Academy of Nursing
- National Coalition for Ethnic Minority Nurse Association to stay engaged with topics relevant to nurses of color.
Help us paint the internet with nursing’s diverse origin stories. Follow this Medium publication, NursesYouShouldKnow on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, or @KnowNurses on Twitter to share and re-post our articles far and wide.
