Collaboration, Commitment and Consultation - The beginning of spring is always such a flurry of activity – the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and excitement for the year is at a high. It is hard for me to believe that I am already half way through this year as your President – the past six months have been such a whirlwind of activities! The spring season (come a little early this year for many of us) has reminded me of how important it is for us to take a moment to breathe, enjoy the outdoors, and smell the roses. This sense of rejuvenation gives us a chance to embrace and renew our practice as psychiatric-mental health nurses. Here at APNA, we are taking the opportunity to cultivate and maintain our efforts of collaboration, commitment, and consultation within the association. I’d like to take a moment to explore some of these worthwhile endeavors going on within APNA and PMH nursing.
APNA is working with representatives from the White House and in collaboration with the VA, ANA, NLN, Uniformed Military Services and other nursing organizations in the “Joining Forces” campaign. This is First Lady Michelle Obama’s comprehensive national initiative which calls upon us as a nation to take action in providing support and treatment to our service members, veterans, and their families. Particularly of concern in this initiative are the often overlooked invisible wounds of which we as psychiatric nurses are so aware: depression, PTSD, TBI and more. We received a call requesting our involvement and within a few short weeks we had coordinated with other nursing colleagues to pledge our support. We are pleased to be the only mental health “go-to” organization involved at this time and are sure to benefit exponentially from dialoguing with the different branches of our armed forces and the others seated at this table.
We were similarly quick to respond to an invitation to participate with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in their initiative to “Improve Behavioral Health and Reduce the Use of Antipsychotic Medications in Nursing Homes Residents.” This is an opportunity to offer our expertise starting at the ground floor of a multi-dimensional national action plan and to help ensure that any actions taken are in the best interest of patient care. The proper use of antipsychotic is essential in any setting.
By the time you are reading this we will have begun working with The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Mathematica Policy Research, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to develop and test a range of measures that assess the quality of behavioral health care. Specifically, we will be participating in an important small group discussion to provide input on the types of measures that should be developed.
We also have member representatives actively working with the Emergency Nurses Association on the delivery of care for our psychiatric patients in the EDs and with the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties in the review process for their competency work. Our Pennsylvania Chapter President Wendy Zubenko will be attending the National Student Nurses Association Annual Conference and one of our Board Members will attend the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference. Our own councils and committees are engaged in many activities, not the least of which is the review and revisions of our scope and standards of practice and an ongoing participation with the LACE network. During March I’ll be attending the International Society of Psychiatric Nurses Annual Conference on behalf of APNA.
Finally, our strategic plan revision work is well underway: you will find an in-depth description of our strategic planning process, history, and current operations in an upcoming issue of JAPNA. We could not do any of it without your valuable input. It is our commitment to you, our members, to be inclusive and transparent. Please do continue to share your opinions and ideas. I hope that this update on APNA activities has been informative and I’d love to hear your feedback on what we have been up to. On a personal note, do know that it is a true honor and pleasure to be serving you.
Marlene Nadler-Moodie, MSN, APRN, PMHCNS-BC
APNA President