President's Message: Spring - Time of Plans & Projects
In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy observed, “Spring is the time of plans and projects” and this is nowhere more true than in APNA.  The program for APNA’s Clinical Pharmacology Institute, “Beyond Diagnosis: Dimensions of Psychopharmacologic Practice across the Lifespan,” (June 20-23) has been posted and the CPI Planning Committee has once again assembled an all-star lineup of presenters. Cont'd

Improving Care: APNA and ENA Collaborate to Provide Better Care for Psychiatric Patients in the ED
“The emergency departments are impacted with psychiatric patients,” said Marlene Nadler-Moodie, MSN, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, immediate past president of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. A clinical nurse specialist and educator, Nadler-Moodie often begins her presentations to emergency nurses by saying, “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you are a psych nurse. Twenty-five to 50 percent of your patients are psychiatric patients.” Cont'd

Member News: Your Colleagues in the News!
Kathy Brotzge interviewed for Medical News; Lisa Cox named one of the "100 Great Iowa Nurses"; Carol Ross and husband create Carol Morde Ross Distinguished Professorship in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing at UNC-Chapel Hill;  Blog by Mona Shattel on Huff Post Women: Hooters Opens Nursing School; Christine Tebaldi featured in article: Storms bring some people to their breaking point; Teena McGuinness, Susanne Fogger, and Kathleen Troup,  mentioned in article: UAB School of Nursing offers health care services in rural communities. More Info

Member Profile: Coleen Corte, PhD, RN
A psychiatric mental health nurse was at the table! Last month, Coleen Corte, PhD, RN attended the 2013 National Nursing Research Roundtable: The Science of Chronic Illness Self-Management as APNA's representative. The meeting was co-sponsored by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the American Nurses Association and held in Bethesda, Maryland. Cont'd

Call to Action: PMH Nursing & Primary Care
Let your colleagues who are involved in health care reform and health care workforce issues know about the important role that psych nurses play in the delivery primary care. President Beth Phoenix recently issued an APNA statement, approved by the Board of Directors earlier this year, which provides an overview of our role in the primary care workforce and how we fit into integrated care. Use the main points of this statement in your conversations with your colleagues and friends - eradicate misconceptions and ensure that evolving models of integrated care are inclusive and better able to meet the mental health needs of the population. Primary Care Statement

Continuing Education: RN Topics
Browse through our RN Specific Education page to find continuing nursing education tailored to your daily practice needs! This page is just the beginning - our online offerings cover a range of topics essential to the scope and standards of psychiatric mental health nursing practice. RN Specific Education
In the works: A recovery to practice curriculum specifically for RNs in the inpatient setting, recognizing the crucial role you play in launching recovery-focused practice!

CPI: Earn Psychopharmacology Contact Hours
In addition to the opportunity to earn up to 23 contact hours, the 11th Annual Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute has lots to offer: crucial medication info, including drug interactions and/or side effects; sessions on mental health across the lifespan; a range of info for all levels of nursing practice - from cutting edge research to practical application through case examples; discussion of legal issues related to electronic health records and HIPAA regulations; info for nurses who work in all settings on topics like sleep, first episode psychosis and ADHD. Register by Monday, June 3rd to save! Register Now  |  Program Info

Mentoring: The Newly Streamlined APNA Mentor Match
Thanks to member feedback, we've revamped the APNA Mentor Match enrollment process and made it easier for prospective mentors and mentees to participate. The database of APNA Mentor Match participants is growing every day - check out our new resources, enroll in the program, and search for a mentor or mentee! community.apna.org/Mentoring

Annual Conference: Saddle up!
The Scholarly Review Committee is hard at work finalizing the APNA Annual Conference program. While we can't tell you the details yet, we can promise you that the APNA 27th Annual Conference, October 9-12, will be a hog-killin' time! (We've been told that's how cowboys say "a lot of fun".) Come October, saddle up your horses and head on over to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas for more than three days of continuing education and networking for psych nurses of all backgrounds. In the meantime, check out all that San Antonio has to offer: More Info

New Members: 385 new members since February!

The costs of caring for people with dementia in the United States in 2010 were between $159 billion to $215 billion, and those costs could rise dramatically with the increase in the numbers of older people in coming decades, according to estimates by researchers at RAND Corp. and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The researchers found these costs of care comparable to, if not greater than, those for heart disease and cancer. Full Story

A rethink is needed in terms of how we view mental illness, stated National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel, M.D., in a recent TED talk at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Deaths from medical causes such as leukemia and heart disease have decreased over the past 30 years. The same cannot be said of the suicide rate, which has remained the same. A vast majority of suicides - 90% - are related to mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia. Insel believes part of the problem is that mental illness is referred to either as a mental or behavioral disorder. "We need to think of these as brain disorders," he said, adding that for these brain disorders, behavior is the last thing to change. Click here for the full story and to watch the video.

Psychiatric inpatients are at extreme risk for suicide in the period immediately following discharge, but high-quality aftercare may be protective, new research suggests. A retrospective case-control study showed that 55% of 100 patients in England with psychiatric illness who died by suicide did so within the first week of being discharged - and nearly half of those died before their first follow-up treatment appointment, reported MedScape News Today. Full Story

As much as a decade before most schizophrenia patients begin showing obvious symptoms, brain scans may be able to detect signs of the disease, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina. Individuals who have a parent or sibling with schizophrenia are about 10 times more likely to develop the disease than those who do not, reported Psych Central. Full Story

SAMHSA's Report to Congress on the Nation's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Workforce Issues provides an overview of the facts and issues affecting the substance abuse and mental health workforce in America. It presents demographic data on the workforce, major factors that impact the workforce, and efforts to address workforce challenges. Click here to access the report.

Medical Psychiatry at VCUHS recently received the Bronze Beacon award given by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. 

Mental Health America applauds the Senate's overwhelming passage by a vote of 95-2 of the Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act (S. 689). The Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act reauthorizes and improves programs administered by both the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services related to awareness, prevention, and early identification of mental health conditions, and the promotion of linkages to appropriate services for children and youth. Full Story

The Alzheimer's Association applauds the reintroduction of the Health Outcomes, Planning, and Education (HOPE) for Alzheimer's Act. The HOPE for Alzheimer's Act represents a critical effort to ensure individuals receive a timely and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias and that newly diagnosed individuals and their families have access to information, resources and support services. The Alzheimer's Association commends Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA.) and Christopher Smith (R-NJ) for their leadership in reintroducing this important bipartisan legislation. Full Story

In New York, new legislation entitled the Nurse Practitioners Modernization Act (A.4846), sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, would allow a certified nurse practitioner to diagnose and perform certain medical actions without the collaboration of a licensed physician, reported LegislativeGazette.com. Full Story

American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) recently released ACOS & CAPS: Preparing for the Impact of Healthcare Reform on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Practice. Click here to read the report. (PDF)

The National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors has removed time-limited endorsement status from four measures focused on psychosocial functioning in children and adolescents, participation in a national dose index registry, and diagnostic evaluation and suicide risk assessment for children and adolescents with major depressive disorders. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is Accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.