President's Message: Practical & Necessary Changes
The power of human connection cannot be overstated. In a year of necessary change, some things have remained the same: our patients, students, colleagues, and communities still need us, and our most important tool remains ourselves. Read more

Member News
Diane Esposito discusses PTSD and secondary trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic; Joy Lauerer leads tele-mental health residency team awarded grant from the Duke Endowment; Suzie Marriott highlighted as a nurse innovator during COVID-19 pandemic; Andrew Penn writes blog on the COVID-19 vaccine and recent events; Jeffery Ramirez details the role of the PMH-APRN to the Seattle Times; Sharon Tucker encourages mindfulness and physical activity for mental health; Melanie White receives scholarship from Westerly Hospital. Learn More

Nurses in Action: Sharing Lived Experience to Educate on Substance Use Disorders
As a presenter at last year’s APNA Annual Conference, Kristin Waite-Labott, BSN, RN shared her lived experience to help educate psychiatric-mental health nurses about substance use disorders in healthcare workers. We spoke with Kristin about her work, her advice for her nursing community, and more. Read More

APNA 35th Annual Conference Call for Abstracts
As fellow nurses, your peers trust your perspective and want to hear from you at the APNA Annual Conference: Submit an abstract now! Share your innovation, best practice, or analysis with your community. Learn More & Submit an Abstract

Don't Forget Your Self-Care
In her 2020 APNA Annual Conference President's Address, Tari Dilks said, "What you are experiencing is not weakness. It's something that has to be acknowledged...the stress and trauma we are undergoing now." To help you practice self-care, you can access Tari's recorded session free of charge here. You can also browse resources for self-care during the pandemic curated for psychiatric-mental health nurses here.

Help Define the PMH Nursing Workforce
Your voice matters: take a brief questionnaire to share some information about your work as a psychiatric-mental health nurse. As a thanks for your participation, you will receive a $20 credit towards content of your choosing in the APNA eLearning Center. Take the RN Questionnaire  |  Take the APRN Questionnaire

APNA Transitions in Practice Certificate Program: Newly Updated!
Whether you are searching for a curriculum to onboard new nurses or the latest evidence for psychiatric-mental health nursing care, the APNA Transitions in Practice (ATP) Certificate Program may be what you need! The newly updated ATP delivers enhancements like case studies to promote application to practice and critical thinking. Learn More

Featured Resource: Virtual Teaching Resources and Strategies
The APNA Education Council compiled a series of resources for nurse educators teaching in virtual environments or who are looking to incorporate more video media into their lessons. These resources include example scenarios, trainings, and more to empower educators as they navigate the circumstances of the pandemic. Learn More

Resource Roundup

• COVID-19 Resources: SAMHSA's Crisis Services: Meeting Needs, Saving Lives details crisis intervention services, best practices and related components of crisis services; ANA Enterprise offers general guidance on COVID-19 vaccines; SAMHSA Training and Technical Assistance Related to COVID-19
• Grants and Scholarships: The American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program is seeking applications for fellows and new mentors for the Leadership and Education Advancement Program (LEAP) for Diverse Scholars.

New Members: 708 new members since November!

In a 2020 Gallup poll, Nurses earned a record 89% very high/high score for their honesty and ethics, four percentage points greater than their prior high, last recorded in 2019. This is the 19th consecutive year nurses have ranked number one in Gallup's annual poll. Full Story

The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) launched its new AGS Cognitive Screening Toolkit on the iGeriatrics app, introducing an easy-to-access resource that can help clinicians select the appropriate free, open-access cognitive screening test among those identified by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for use with primary care patients. Full Story

Beck Institute's annual scholarship competition is now accepting applications for its Student and Early Career Professional Workshop, which offers an opportunity for young leaders in CBT to train with Beck Institute faculty. Ten winners will receive a full scholarship to the workshop, which will take place virtually from August 2-4, plus a private question and answer session with Drs. Aaron Beck and Judith Beck. Students and clinicians with less than five years of clinical practice are eligible to apply. Click here for more information.

In partnership with the American Psychiatric Association’s SMI Adviser, a SAMHSA-funded clinical support system for serious mental illness, NAMI is pleased to release the Medical Mind Podcast series led by NAMI Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ken Duckworth. The six-part series includes episodes on bipolar disorder, early psychosis and major depressive disorder. Click here for more details.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) could boost the effectiveness of strategies for improving emotional regulation, reported MedScape. Study participants who underwent TMS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPC) experienced fewer negative emotions when using appraisal or distraction compared with those who underwent sham TMS, Dr. Jun Zhao of Shenzhen University in China and colleagues found. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), announced 26 research grants designed to explore essential questions about the delivery of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research projects will focus on areas such as the increased use of telehealth, best practices in rural care settings, emergency management in hospitals, addressing critical barriers to effective pandemic response in hospitals that care for vulnerable populations, and improving clinician and patient safety. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) lauded Congress for passing the Strengthening Behavioral Health Parity Act (H.R. 7539) and including several key mental health and substance use-related programs in its combined $1.4 trillion year-end appropriations and COVID-relief funding package. H.R. 7539 gives the Department of Labor new powers to regulate and audit health plans to determine if they are in compliance with the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Full Story

A $300 million increase for Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was signed into law at the end of last year, bringing the annual federal investment to $3.1 billion. Full Story

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a wide-ranging bill that includes expanding access to telehealth after the COVID-19 public health emergency abates, reported Healthcare IT News. The legislation also includes provisions expanding the scope of practice for several types of clinicians; requiring providers to notify patients in advance about whether a procedure is in or out of network; increasing access to urgent care; and mandating insurance coverage for all COVID-19 related emergency, inpatient and cognitive rehab services. Full Story

Late last year NAMI released a new publication, State Legislation Report: Trends in State Mental Health Policy (2019), a report that summarizes and showcases significant state mental health legislation from 2019 in advance of upcoming 2021 state legislative sessions. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is announcing it will publish Practice Guidelines for the Administration of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder*, to expand access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) by exempting physicians from certain certification requirements needed to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG)—in collaboration with the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance)—released The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Implement the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. This new report outlines the actions that communities and individuals can take to reduce the rates of suicide and help improve resilience. Full Story

Click here to see letters APNA has signed on to as a part of its participation in coalitions that further policy for nursing and mental health.

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited with distinction as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.