Physician Assistant / Nurse Practitioner (PA/NP), Mental Health, New Grads Welcome, Loan Repayment.

Physician Assistant / Nurse Practitioner (PA/NP), Mental Health, New Grads Welcome, Loan Repayment PAs and NPs Drawn to Mental Health: Make It the Center of Your Practice Aayu Clinics, Chicago | Full-time | $129,000 to $175,000 per year | Student Loan Repayment Assistance | New Graduates Welcome, Mental Health Training Provided Most clinicians treat mental health as the part of the visit they rush past.

You lean into it. The patient whose depression has quietly taken over their life. The one whose anxiety has been brushed off as stress for years. The person living with schizophrenia who needs a clinician who will actually listen. If these are the patients you want to spend your days with, and you still enjoy the breadth and pace of primary and urgent care, we should talk. Aayu Clinics is a well-rated, 7-day primary and urgent care practice with a strong and growing mental health program.

We are looking for a PA or NP who wants mental health to be the center of their practice and who is fully able and willing to practice primary and urgent care as well. We are glad to hire outstanding new graduates and train them in mental health care. This position is part of our Mental Health Track, which includes student loan repayment assistance for eligible clinicians. Whether you are fresh out of school or an experienced clinician, what matters most to us is genuine interest, sound judgment, and a real willingness to keep learning.

The Role: Mental Health at the Center You will practice in a primary and urgent care setting, but most of your patients will come to you for mental health care. A mental health focused caseload. The majority of your visits will be patients seeking care for mental health conditions, seen in a primary care setting where their physical health is part of the picture. The full diagnostic range. We see everything from unipolar depression and anxiety to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

This is not a role limited to the easy cases. Staffing our ketamine clinic. We provide ketamine infusions for patients with severe, treatment-resistant depression. You will be a core part of this service, helping evaluate patients, monitoring them through each infusion, and following their response over the course of treatment. Primary and urgent care alongside it. You will also see general primary and urgent care patients, which keeps your medical skills broad and lets you treat the whole person, not just the diagnosis.

Who the Mental Health Track Is For Our Mental Health Track is for PAs and NPs whose primary interest is mental health, and who can and want to practice primary and urgent care too. Mental health will be the center of your work, but this is not a psychiatry-only role. You will see primary and urgent care patients as well, and you should enjoy that part of the job, not just tolerate it. If you want mental health without general medicine, this is not the right fit.

If you want both, with mental health at the core, it is exactly the right fit. Student Loan Repayment for Our Mental Health Track You worked hard for your degree, and you shouldn't have to carry the debt alone. PAs and NPs in our Mental Health Track may be eligible for student loan repayment assistance toward their qualifying educational debt. Commit to three years of continuous clinical practice at Aayu Clinics, and we'll help lighten that load while you build a career in mental health and primary care.

New Graduates: We Will Train You in Mental Health We are willing to hire outstanding new graduates and train them in mental health care. Prior psychiatric experience is a plus, not a requirement. The same goes for IV skills. If you bring strong clinical fundamentals, genuine interest, and a willingness to learn, we will teach you the rest. You will learn psychiatric assessment, diagnosis, and medication management hands-on, with physician mentorship, case conferences, and a structured learning path behind you.

You will not be left to figure it out alone. And because many new graduates start out carrying significant student debt, our loan repayment assistance can help you start your career on stronger footing. An Academic Practice, Not a Numbers Factory Most clinics treat continuing education as a checkbox. We treat it as the center of gravity. At Aayu, clinical growth is structured into how we practice, not squeezed in around it: Physician-led case conferences where we work through complex psychiatric and medical presentations, diagnostic dilemmas, and the calls that don't fit neatly in an algorithm.

Literature deep-dives and journal reviews that keep your practice genuinely evidence-based, from psychopharmacology to newer treatments like ketamine. A CME curriculum spanning psychiatry and primary care, so you build real depth in mental health without losing the breadth of general medicine. Direct, ongoing mentorship from our Medical Director, Dr. Abhi Shinde, who invests in his clinicians as thinkers and not just as staff.

This is the intellectual rigor of an academic environment without the ego, the gatekeeping, or the exhaustion. If you have ever wished for colleagues who wanted to talk through a tough case at a level that sharpened you, this is that place. Built for the Way You Want to Grow Whether you are fresh out of training or several years in, the environment you practice in shapes the clinician you become. Here you can: Build real confidence managing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and psychotic disorders, with mentorship behind you.

Gain hands-on experience in ketamine infusion therapy, a growing area of psychiatric care. Keep your general medicine sharp across primary and urgent care in a 7-day practice. Step into precepting, teaching, and clinical leadership as you grow with us. Practice at the top of your license, with a physician partner invested in your development rather than your output. We are not looking for people who have arrived.

We are looking for people who are hungry to become the clinicians they set out to be. A Model That Protects You Here is the uncomfortable truth about high-volume clinics. Their margins depend on your productivity, so they pack you with patients. When corners get cut and something gets missed, you are the one who carries the liability and the license risk. They keep the profit. You keep the exposure.

We built Aayu deliberately differently: Reasonable patient loads that give you time to listen, which in mental health care is not a luxury. It is part of the treatment. Your reputation protected , because we will never ask you to practice in a way that invites risk. Shared accountability , where success comes from quality care, not from burning out talented people. You should be able to look yourself in the mirror at the end of every shift.

Our model is designed to make that easy. Who We Are Looking For A PA or NP whose primary interest is mental health. Experienced clinicians and outstanding new graduates are both welcome, and we will train new graduates in mental health care. Someone who is able and willing to practice primary and urgent care, and who enjoys the variety and pace it brings. A clinician drawn to complexity rather than put off by it, from a first visit for depression to a patient living with schizophrenia.

Someone with deep compassion who still sees the person, not just the diagnosis. A curious learner who reads beyond the minimum and wants to be challenged, mentored, and continually developed. Prior mental health experience and IV skills are a plus, but neither is required. The Complete Package Highly competitive salary ($129K to $190K, based on experience) Student loan repayment assistance for eligible Mental Health Track PAs and NPs who commit to three years of continuous clinical practice Big-hospital benefits with small-company culture Subsidized medical, dental, vision, and life insurance CME allowance plus free continuing education Professional development and tuition reimbursement Employee assistance program and employee discount Flexible schedule and paid time off Retirement plan Ready to Talk?

If mental health is the work that pulls at you, if you want to keep learning for the rest of your career, and if you believe patients deserve better than the broken volume-driven model, we would love to meet you. Outstanding new graduates are encouraged to apply. We will train you in mental health care, and eligible clinicians may receive help paying down their student loans. Apply now, and let's start the conversation.

Pay: $129,000.00 - $180,000.00 per year Benefits: 401(k) Dental insurance Employee assistance program Flexible spending account Health insurance Health savings account Life insurance Paid time off Retirement plan Vision insurance Application Question(s): Our selection process is rigorous, and it starts with your knowledge base and clinical acumen. We find out fast how good you really are. If you are ready to be challenged, say yes and keep going.

If no, this is where you stop. If you make it through, brace yourself - the first six months will test you. You learn on shift, then go home and work through a serious stack of CME that would intimidate most people. It is a lot. But being the very best -that is the point. Ready? If so, say yes and keep going. If not, stop here. Can you work weekend shifts on a rotating basis? (We are closed on major holidays) Are you willing to work long shifts 8a-7p?

(this isn't a 9-5 M-F job) If you make it through and we select you, what is your availability? Tell us how long you would need between signing the contract and your first working day. License/Certification: Illinois license (Preferred) Board Certification - which board certification do you have? (Required) Work Location: In person