Veterans Administration Nursing Academic Partnerships In Graduate Education (VANAP-GE) and Residency in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Education
Saturday, April 25, 2015: 4:25 PM
Key Ballroom 9-10 (Hilton Baltimore)
Susanne Fogger, DNP, PMHNP, BC1,
Teena McGuinness, PhD, CRNP, FAAN2,
Amanda Davis, RN, MSN3, Leah Pickett, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC
4, Doreen C. Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN
5, Cynthia Selleck, PhD., RN, FNP
6, Cynthia Cleveland, DNP, RN, NE-BC
3 and Kimberly Froelich, Phd.RN
7, (1)University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, Birmingham, AL, (2)Community Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, Birmingham, AL, (3)Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL, (4)Community Systems and outcomes, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, (5)University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, (6)School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, (7)Outpatient, Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL
Abstract:
Thirteen years of the Global War on Terror has exposed almost 1.1 million American Veterans to significant risks to their mental health. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), mood disorders, and substance use disorders are the signature wounds of this war. Suicide rates for these Veterans are twice that of the U.S. population. As the demand for psychiatric services increase, need for improved access to care becomes more critical. An innovative new program sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs partners a Veterans Affairs Medical Center‘s Nursing and Psychiatric Service with a University's School of Nursing. This new partnership educates the university's master’s level psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) students with the resources of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center to focus on the mental health needs of Veterans. The VAMC’s interprofessional clinicians and SON’s PMHNP faculty are creating a Veteran-centric program that will increase the number of highly educated PMHNPs that will better meet the mental health needs of Veterans.
This program offers an immersion experience for students within VMAC interprofessional teams where they will complete 70% of their hours. Students interested in developing clinical expertise with Veterans apply to a specialty track and identify their interest in the program. To develop further Veteran-centric competencies, students may choose to continue their education by applying to the VANAP GE Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Residency (MHNPR), a one year paid position in which novice PMHNPs expand their competencies in treating psychiatric disorders of Veterans. The PMHNP-Resident practices under the guidance and supervision of experienced clinicians and educators within interprofessional teams with special foci on PTSD, substance use disorders, TBI, and serious mental illnesses. Lessons learned from the first year of the MHNPR will be reviewed.
The result of the partnership will be clinically competent clinicians who are highly knowledgeable regarding the mental health needs of the 1.1 million Veterans who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom.
