Each month, the Research Council Steering Committee features an APNA member. This month, we are featuring:
Brenda J. Johnston, DNP, PMHNP, PMHCNS!
I have been an RN for 37 years and a PMHNP since 2008. My background includes emergency, and forensic nursing. I developed the Forensic Nursing Program at Winchester Medical Center in Winchester, Virginia in 1998. My work with victims of trauma prompted my decision to become a PMHNP because so many of my patients struggled with mental illness.
I graduated in 2014 with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Degree from George Mason University. My DNP practice improvement project (PIP) centered on the development of an integrative practice model at a community clinic for low-income citizens. Integrated practice models provide environments where healthcare providers are better prepared to provide affordable, high-quality cost-effective care. An article created from my PIP, was published in the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services in August, 2015.
I teach undergraduate and graduate psychiatric nursing at Shepherd University (SU) in Shepherdstown WV. I developed the PMHNP/DNP program at SU which launched in fall 2021. I am excited to help expand mental health services in underserved populations like WV. West Virginia is ranked 43 out of the 50 states for access to mental health care and relative to other states has some of the highest rates of opioid related deaths and suicides.
I have owned and operated a private PMHNP practice since 2019 and I am the current president of the Virginia Chapter of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and the past president of the Virginia Chapter of the International Association of Forensic Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau (STTI) Rho Pi Chapter and past president of the Northern Shenandoah Valley NAMI Chapter.
I have articles published in peer reviewed journals on the care of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, on integrated practice models, alcohol use disorders and the management of depression.
Posted on behalf of the Research and Scholarship Council.
If you would like to be featured, please sign up using the following link: APNA member signup