Sheila Garrison, RN

Sheila Garrison is a registered nurse with over 54 years of experience dedicated primarily to psychiatric nursing. She began her career at Broughton Hospital in Morganton, North Carolina, where she built a strong foundation in mental health care before eventually retiring from the facility. She completed her nursing education at Western Piedmont Community College, earning her RN credential while balancing professional growth and family responsibilities. Over the course of her long career, she also gained experience in travel nursing and supplemental staffing roles, including work with Supplemental Health Care and Worldwide Travel Staffing.

Throughout her career, Sheila has worked across a wide spectrum of psychiatric settings, including adult and child psychiatry, intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) populations with co-occurring psychosis, and specialized units such as borderline personality disorder care. Her clinical expertise includes admissions and intake evaluations, crisis assessment in emergency department settings, and participation in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) support, particularly with agitated dementia patients. She has also led group therapy sessions focused on coping skills development and patient education about mental health conditions.

In her current work in forensic psychiatric inpatient care, Sheila focuses on long-term patients whose psychiatric conditions are intertwined with criminal behavior and chronic psychosis. She emphasizes consistent patient engagement, structured therapeutic interaction, and practical coping strategies to support stability in highly complex clinical environments. With decades of experience behind her, she continues to express a strong professional commitment to understanding the human mind and supporting patients with severe and persistent mental illness.

• Western Piedmont Community College — ADN