In the midst of tragedy: survival, change and expansion of program emphasis from adult to lifespan

The Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Program at the University started in 2006 with a HRSA grant. The State was then, and continues to be now, in critical need for mental health providers for it’s’ population across this rugged and frontier state. Suddenly and sadly, two of the senior faculty and primary investigators of the HRSA grant, one of which was a lead faculty in the PMHNP Program, were tragically killed in an automobile accident one week prior to Christmas Day, 2008. With only one Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurse left on the faculty, the PMHNP Program was thrown into a crisis. How were we to survive this? Could we survive this? This is the only graduate degree granting institution in the entire state, and consequently, the enthusiasm and opportunity of educating PMHNPs and ‘growing our own’ mental health providers was all left to uncertainty. Many outpourings of empathy, kindness, and tangible offers came forward, but particularly an offer of help and support came from our neighboring State, a University School of Nursing. Following a meeting between essential faculty from both programs, and both Deans, a collaboration between the two state University PMHNP Programs was strategized. This required the need to merge both curricula into one to offer the same courses to two separate groups of APN students at the same time; one group in a large urban area and another group in a rural area.  One university had a Family PMHNP Program while the other had an Adult PMHNP Program, and a considerable amount of administrative and curricula redesign needed to happen in order to offer these programs together. Differences in University policies had to be discussed and mediated in order to make this a formal agreement. This component of the symposium will discuss these events, and will review obstacles that were overcome which provided an opportunity for the university to emerge out of a crisis to a partnership with another university that brings both an urban and a rural perspective to all PMNHP students between the programs.