Advanced Practice Provider (NP/PA) – Ketamine & Mental Health | 2 Days/Week
Dérive Health – Pinehurst / Southern Pines, NCPart-Time | 2 Consistent Days per Week
About Dérive Health
Dérive Health is a physician-led, therapy-integrated ketamine clinic grounded in presence, trauma-informed care, and thoughtful, evidence-based treatment.
Since 2017, our team has provided ketamine-assisted care for patients experiencing treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety, trauma-related conditions, and other difficult mental-health challenges. Our model combines rigorous medical care with intentional attention to set, setting, therapeutic support, and continuity of care.
Our Pinehurst / Moore County clinic opened in March 2026 and has quickly become an important part of our work. We serve a broad Sandhills population, including a significant number of veterans, military families, first responders, and patients seeking alternatives after traditional treatments have not been enough.
We are now adding a second advanced practice provider as patient volume and clinic days expand.
This is not a new-site launch role. You would be joining an established clinical team, an operating clinic, and a care model that is already in place.
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The Role
We are seeking an experienced Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant to join our Pinehurst clinical team for approximately two consistent days per week.
We welcome applicants from a range of advanced practice backgrounds, including:
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners
- Family Nurse Practitioners
- Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioners
- Acute Care Nurse Practitioners
- Physician Assistants
The exact days can be flexible and coordinated with our current provider schedule.
Prior ketamine or psychedelic-medicine experience is welcomed but not required. We care more about strong clinical judgment, emotional steadiness, curiosity, humility, and fit with our care model.
This is a relational, presence-based clinical role — not a high-volume psychiatric medication-management position.
You will work closely with:
- Our existing advanced practice provider
- Lead and PRN nursing staff
- Dérive’s Medical Director
- Community therapists and integration providers
- Dérive’s Charlotte clinical team
You will have meaningful autonomy in clinical decision-making while practicing within established Dérive protocols and a highly collaborative team structure.
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What You’ll Do
Ketamine-Assisted Care
- Conduct medical and psychiatric screening for ketamine treatment
- Determine treatment eligibility within established clinical protocols
- Develop and oversee IV ketamine treatment plans
- Make dosing decisions and adjustments based on clinical response
- Provide medical oversight during infusions
- Evaluate and manage acute clinical concerns
- Review treatment response, tolerability, symptom progression, and overall trajectory
- Collaborate closely with nursing staff during patient care
- Support thoughtful preparation, orientation, and grounding within provider scope
- Coordinate with therapists and outside mental-health providers when appropriate
- Maintain clear, timely, clinically meaningful documentation
- Participate in ongoing case review and clinical quality improvement
Psychedelic-Informed Care
Prior psychedelic-medicine experience is not required.
What is required is curiosity, humility, and willingness to learn.
Our providers are expected to understand that ketamine treatment is not simply medication administration. Patients may experience emotional material, altered perception, dissociation, vulnerability, anxiety, or meaningful psychological experiences during treatment.
We train providers to:
- Maintain calm clinical presence
- Avoid unnecessarily interrupting or pathologizing the patient experience
- Recognize when intervention is medically necessary and when supportive presence is more appropriate
- Use thoughtful, non-directive language
- Respect the role of therapists and integration providers
- Support patients without interpreting or directing their experience
- Maintain clear clinical and professional boundaries
Functional & Integrative IV Care
Our Pinehurst clinic also provides a small, curated menu of physician-supervised IV therapies supporting recovery, metabolic health, performance, and longevity.
The provider may:
- Provide medical oversight for established IV protocols
- Review patient appropriateness and contraindications
- Support nursing staff with clinical questions
- Educate patients within established protocols
- Participate in future development of integrative care pathways when appropriate
This portion of the role is secondary to our ketamine and mental-health work.
Required Background
- Active North Carolina NP or PA license, or ability to obtain one
- Strong clinical judgment
- Excellent communication and documentation skills
- Comfort managing patients receiving IV medications
- Ability to remain calm and clinically clear when patients are anxious, emotionally activated, or experiencing non-ordinary states
- Strong collaborative skills
- Willingness to practice within established clinical protocols and team standards
Backgrounds we particularly value include:
- Psychiatry / PMHNP
- Emergency medicine
- Critical care
- Internal medicine
- Anesthesia / PACU
- Procedural medicine
- Other experience involving independent medical decision-making and close patient monitoring
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners are especially encouraged to apply, but PMHNP certification is not required for the right candidate.
Previous ketamine or psychedelic-medicine experience is helpful but not required.
Who Thrives at Dérive
The strongest providers in this environment tend to be people who:
- Are clinically confident without needing to dominate the room
- Can tolerate uncertainty
- Know when to intervene and when not to
- Enjoy spending meaningful time with patients
- Are comfortable around significant trauma and emotional material
- Communicate directly and respectfully with nurses, therapists, and physicians
- Welcome feedback and ongoing learning
- Are curious about psychedelic-assisted care
- Value both medical rigor and human connection
- Want work that feels meaningful rather than purely transactional
- Understand the importance of consistency and team culture
- Are willing to learn an existing care model rather than immediately redesign it
Schedule
- Approximately 2 clinic days per week
- Consistent weekly schedule preferred
- Exact days are flexible and coordinated with our existing provider schedule
- Additional coverage opportunities may occasionally be available
- Required onboarding and training with our Charlotte team
- No routinely scheduled nights, weekends, or holidays
There may be occasional communication outside scheduled clinic hours related to patient follow-up, clinical coordination, or time-sensitive issues. This is not traditional call coverage, but we expect reasonable professional responsiveness as part of a small collaborative clinical team.
Training
Dérive provides structured training in:
- IV ketamine clinical protocols
- Patient selection and safety
- Dosing strategy
- Psychedelic-informed care
- Trauma-informed communication
- Set and setting
- Managing difficult treatment experiences
- Collaboration with therapists
- Dérive’s clinical philosophy and workflows
We do not expect a new provider to arrive already knowing our model.
We do expect curiosity, humility, strong clinical judgment, and willingness to learn it deeply.
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive hourly or per-diem compensation based on experience
- Predictable two-day-per-week schedule
- Calm, supportive clinical environment
- Full training in ketamine-assisted care
- Advanced training opportunities through Dérive’s internal KAP and psychedelic-informed education
- High-touch physician support and mentorship
- Additional clinical opportunities may develop as the Pinehurst clinic continues to grow
Why This Work Is Different
Many advanced practice roles in mental health are built around high patient volume, short visits, medication management, and productivity targets.
This role is different.
At Dérive, you have time to think.
Time to know your patients.
Time to collaborate with nurses and therapists.
Time to observe treatment response beyond a five-minute follow-up.
And the opportunity to practice emerging mental-health medicine in an environment that values both scientific rigor and human connection.
For the right provider, this can be a deeply meaningful two days of the week.
Job Type: Part-time
Expected schedule: 2 consistent clinic days per week
Work Location: In person – Pinehurst / Southern Pines, NC
Job Type: Part-time
Pay: $50.00 - $65.00 per hour
Expected hours: 16 – 20 per week
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
Work Location: In person
