Lori Heseltine pushes behavioral health nursing forward

Behavioral health nurse leader Lori Heseltine is spotlighting the need for stronger nursing education, mentorship and workforce development as healthcare faces persistent staffing gaps. Her career spans nursing leadership, consulting and patient care across multiple settings, with a focus on resilience and operational excellence.

Why it matters: - Behavioral health nursing sits at the center of a wider nursing shortage and a growing need for nurse educators. - Heseltine’s career points to how leadership, mentorship and flexible training paths can help strengthen the workforce. - Her focus on psychiatric and mental health nursing reflects a field with high demand and complex patient needs.

What happened: - Lori Heseltine, a nursing leader with experience in behavioral health, hospital operations and healthcare consulting, was spotlighted by Influential Women. - Heseltine most recently served as Director of Nursing for a private behavioral health hospital. - Her career has included roles in home care, legal nurse consulting and addiction and recovery services. - Heseltine is now pursuing a master’s degree in Psychology with the goal of moving into nursing education focused on psychiatric and mental health nursing.

The details: - As Director of Nursing, Heseltine provided strategic and operational oversight in a behavioral health setting. - She led clinical teams, reinforced nursing practice standards and worked to ensure safe, effective patient care. - Her leadership style emphasized accountability, teamwork and continuous improvement. - Heseltine’s early exposure to healthcare came through her father, an oral surgeon, who introduced her to the medical field. - She worked in an assisted living facility through middle school and high school. - She later became a Certified Nursing Assistant to deepen her understanding of patient care. - After becoming a single mother in 2004, she chose nursing as a practical and meaningful career path. - Heseltine earned an Associate Degree in Nursing in 2006. - Her first behavioral health role was at a magnet hospital in Maine, where she found a lasting interest in behavioral health nursing and leadership. - She also supported a professional baseball team during the COVID-19 pandemic and contributed legal work with the Innocence Project.

Between the lines: - Heseltine’s career path shows how nurses can move between bedside care, operations, consulting and education. - Her repeated return to behavioral health suggests a specialty that matched both her skills and her sense of purpose. - Her emphasis on controlling what she can and “choosing her battles” reflects the kind of mindset that helps leaders work in high-pressure healthcare environments. - Her advice to young nurses to say “yes” to new opportunities signals a workforce strategy built on adaptability, not just specialization.

What’s next: - Heseltine plans to use her graduate studies to transition toward nursing education. - She wants to help prepare the next generation of psychiatric and mental health nurses. - She will continue mentoring emerging nurses and advocating for wider career pathways in nursing. - She sees current staffing and educator shortages as a chance to expand training and workforce development.

The bottom line: - Lori Heseltine’s career highlights the link between behavioral health expertise, nurse mentorship and the future of healthcare staffing. - Her message is that nursing can remain resilient if the field invests in education, leadership and opportunity.