Advancing Behavioral Health Equity Through Telehealth and Remote Training of Newly Certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioners.

Purpose: Rural communities are disproportionately impacted by acute shortages of mental health providers. This problem, combined with complex behavioral health conditions, elicited the need for a university-based, remote telepsychiatric traineeship for newly board certified psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs).

Method: The Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse TechNology Enhanced Residency (PARTNER) Program was developed to advance behavioral health equity by increasing state-wide access to care, removing geographical barriers, and enhancing PMHNP workforce readiness by strengthening trainees' ability to manage complex behavioral health conditions.

Nursing leadership and influence in practice domains at a Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

Background: Studies in Veteran populations have examined disparities in health service use, care quality, outcomes and increased demands for behavioral health.

Purpose: The purpose is to describe the development of nursing leadership roles that influenced practice improvements and demonstrated outcomes related to health disparities in a Veterans Affairs (VA) population over a 12-year period.

Methods: The Sundean and colleagues' concept analysis of nurse leadership influence was applied to frame the initiative process and impacts.

An Innovative Approach to a Multitrack Advance Practice Registered Nurse Program: The Integration of Psychiatric Mental Health and Primary Care Cohorts.

We describe how an online graduate nurse practitioner program combined psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and primary care advanced practice registered nurse (AGNP/FNP/PNP) tracks into an integrated curriculum. Student evaluations and assessments, along with board certification scores, demonstrated improvement in identifying and managing behavioral health problems, as well as increased competence and collaboration with other nurse practitioner students. Details of the integrated curriculum are provided.

Outcomes and lessons learned from an interprofessional student training program in Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) at an academic health sciences center.

Background And Objectives: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is a public health intervention to address overuse and risky use of alcohol and illegal substances. In order to increase SBIRT in clinical practice, training should start with future health care provider students and faculty. The main objective of this program was to improve and enhance the training of health professions students to provide competent screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment for persons who have or are at-risk for substance use disorder.

Telehealth Professionalism Education for Advanced Practice Nursing Students.

Telehealth professionalism is an often-overlooked element when performing telehealth visits, but it is one that can impact patient and provider satisfaction with this health care delivery modality. This article describes a telehealth professionalism activity that was integrated into the education of advanced practice registered nursing students as one part of their telehealth education. Attainment in knowledge with this activity, in conjunction with positive student feedback, shows promise regarding the impact of the educational intervention and its sustainability.

Integrating infant mental health practice models in nursing.

Problem: During the first years of life, the brain is developing rapidly and is especially vulnerable to the effects of trauma and or stress. Early exposure to such early trauma or stress predisposes young children to mental health problems. The practice of infant mental health (IMH) focuses on preventing negative mental health outcomes in infancy and toddlerhood.

An illustrative case for addressing infant mental health referrals.

Problem: Despite knowing the importance of the early detection of adverse experiences, mental health disorders beginning or occurring during early childhood can be difficult to recognize. To address this gap, this manuscript describes the care of a parent-child dyad utilizing the nursing process in an illustrative case.

Methods: This illustrative case provides a scenario that includes the early detection of infant mental health (IMH) in primary care with referral to a psychiatric mental health advanced practice nurse (PMHNP) and highlights how integrative care with PMHNP can facilitate the use of the nursing process to promote optimal early childhood growth and development and prevent long-term mental health problems.

Screen Time: The Impact of Digital Technology on Children and Strategies in Care.

Media and digital devices are an integral part of the world today. Despite potential benefits of media time, excessive or inappropriate use of technology is having a significant impact on the development and health of children. There is a relationship between increased screen time and greater risk of physical health complications, mental health concerns, and negative outcomes on cognitive, language, social, and emotional development.

Integrating behavioral health in the pediatric medical home.

Topic: Behavioral health disorders (psychiatric illness and substance abuse disorders) represent a significant burden across the nation's health care system. The number of children and adolescents requiring behavioral health care has increased while at the same time the behavioral health workforce continues to experience a shortage of providers. The current model of care is failing to meet the behavioral health needs of children and adolescents.

Increasing physical activity for veterans in the Mental Health Intensive Case Management Program: A community-based intervention.

Aims And Objectives: Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), experience increased mortality-20 years greater disparity for men and 15 years greater disparity for women-compared to the general population (Thornicroft G. Physical health disparities and mental illness: The scandal of premature mortality. Br J Psychiatr.

Depression or Diabetes Distress?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to summarize the need for improved recognition of depression versus diabetes distress and discuss recommendations for appropriate screening tools.

Practice Implications: In order to assess for both depression and diabetes distress, a combined approach of using both the WHO-5 and the PAID-20 is a simple and reliable method for detecting depression and assisting in determining the focus of specific aspects of diabetes management based on the patient's reported depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: Routine screening for depression and diabetes distress is essential for improving quality of life and reducing healthcare cost in patients with diabetes.

Scaffolding behavioral health concepts from more simple to complex builds NP students' competence.

Background: Behavioral health disorders (psychiatric illness and substance abuse disorders) represent a significant burden across the nation's health care system. About one half of the problems that present in primary health care settings are behavioral in nature. There is urgent need to improve the integration of behavioral health care services into primary care.

A prism of excellence: The Charleston Veterans Administration Nursing Academic Partnership.

Background: The Veterans Administration (VA) has been committed to academic affiliate training partnerships for nearly 70 years in efforts to enhance veteran-centric health care. One such effort, the VA Nursing Academy (VANA) program, was developed in 2007 in response to the nationwide nursing shortage and began as a five-year pilot with funding competitively awarded to 15 partnerships between local VA medical centers and schools of nursing. The VANA program evolved into the VA Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) program following the initial pilot.

Recognizing depression in late life.

Depression presents differently in older adults than in younger adults and frequently occurs with many chronic illnesses in later life, though it is not a normal part of aging. The astute practitioner will screen for depression in this population and appropriately treat to improve chronic illness management and quality of life in older adults.

Implementing a nursing civility code: implications for education.

This article provides an overview of one nursing department's experience with implementation of a formalized civility code to address increasing incidents of incivility within the classroom and educational environment. The plan-do-study-act improvement model is used as a framework to describe the process. Discussion of next steps in the improvement process relates to three key elements: theoretical and technical aspects, faculty modeling, and policy and procedure development.