President's Message: The Intersection of Needed Care and Person-Centered Delivery
Our profession exists at the intersection of access to needed care and person-centered care delivery. Patients, families, and communities entrust their mental health and substance use concerns to us, and we carefully ensure their access to individualized care that meets their needs. Read more

Member News
Julie Bremer profiled by the University of Colorado; Jeneen Carman discusses the pandemic's impact on PMH nursing workforce mental health; Melissa Christmas shares information about a new curriculum to address the opioid epidemic; Jennifer Graber named one of Delaware’s Top Nurses; Marcus Henderson explains the unique impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health; Myrto Mia McNeil helps expand access to telemental health in Kansas; Sara Robinson pens article on becoming a PMHNP.  Learn More

Nurses in Action: Spotting Medical Mimics
Caroline Onischak, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC will share her expertise on medical mimics (medical conditions that may be mistaken for psychiatric illness) at the APNA 35th Annual Conference. We spoke with Caroline about her work, what nurses need to know about the topic, and best practices for identifying them. Read More

Featured Resource: APNA Nursing Competencies For Treating Tobacco Use Disorders
With the emergence of novel tobacco use devices, nurse-delivered interventions for tobacco use disorders are needed more than ever. The APNA Nursing Competencies For Treating Tobacco Use Disorders provide a foundation to help you deliver effective nursing interventions for TUD. Get an in-depth look at how to implement the Competencies at the APNA 35th Annual Conference, or read them now.

Coming Soon: 2021 APNA Annual Awards Recipients Profiles
From supporting individuals grieving after loss and suicide prevention for Veterans to expanding access to mental health care in rural areas and de-escalation to create safe environments, this year's APNA Annual Awards recipients have done incredible work. See the full list of recipients and keep an eye out for their profiles coming soon.

2021 APNA Student Scholars: Welcoming the Next Generation of Nurses
Introducing the 2021 Class of APNA Student Scholars! These 31 pre-licensure/undergraduate and graduate students will receive a year of APNA membership and complimentary registration, travel, and lodging for the APNA 35th Annual Conference.

Register for the APNA Annual Conference
Come together with your psychiatric-mental health nursing community & re-energize your practice! With 90+ contact hours, you'll get the updates you need from voices you trust. APNA is closely monitoring developments with the COVID-19 pandemic, including local and national guidelines. Your safety at the conference in Louisville this October 13-16 will be a top priority and APNA will follow the most up-to-date safety and distancing recommendations with that in mind.  Browse the Program  |  Register Now

New Members: 556 New Members since May!

A recent Daily Nurse article looks at four ways COVID-19 changed the role of the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Full Story

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a funding opportunity made possible by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to help states strengthen system capacity to provide community-based mobile crisis intervention services for those with Medicaid. The $15 million funding opportunity is available to state Medicaid agencies for planning grants to support developing these programs. This funding opportunity provides financial resources for state Medicaid agencies to assess community needs and develop programs to bring crisis intervention services directly to individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use related crisis outside a hospital or facility setting. These services may include screening and assessment, stabilization and de-escalation, and coordination of referrals after the initial treatment. Full Story

Administering high-dose buprenorphine in the emergency department (ED) to individuals with untreated opioid use disorder (OUD) is safe, well tolerated, and may help get more patients into treatment after discharge, reported MedScape.com. Giving higher doses of buprenorphine in the ED may provide a longer period of relief to people after discharge, which may help them navigate barriers to access to follow-up care before they experience withdrawal symptoms. Full Story

Following weeks of criticism for its wide-labeled approval for Biogen’s Aduhelm for anyone with Alzheimer’s disease, FDA is now narrowing the recommended window of patients to only those with milder forms of the disease, reported Fierce Pharma. Biogen on July 8 said the FDA approved an updated label for Aduhelm, also known as aducanumab, that recommends the amyloid-beta targeting antibody for people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia, aligned with those included in Biogen’s late-stage trials. Full Story

As of December 31, 2019, the total number of active RN licenses in the U.S. was 4,948,914, an increase of 6.7%, and active LPN/LVN licenses was 996,154, an increase of 2.1%, compared to 2017, according to findings from the 2020 National Nursing Workforce Survey. After adjusting for nurses with multiple licenses, the total number of active RNs in the U.S. was 4,198,031, an increase of 6.3%, and active LPN/LVNs was 944,813, an increase of 2.6%, compared to 2017. Full Story

Young-onset dementia, dementia before age 65, may be more prevalent than previously thought, a systematic review and meta-analysis showed. Based on 74 studies of nearly 2.8 million people, the global age-standardized prevalence of young-onset dementia was 119.0 per 100,000, corresponding to 3.9 million people ages 30 to 64, reported MedPage.com. This prevalence is higher than estimates from the two most referenced reports, both retrospective register-based studies, that showed a prevalence of 54.0 and 42.3 per 100,000 population. Full Story

Patterns of speech in a phone conservation can be used to correctly identify adults in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a study published by the journal PLOS found. Using more than 1,600 voice recordings of phone conversations made from 24 people with confirmed Alzheimer's and 99 healthy controls, researchers correctly identified those with the common form of dementia with roughly 90% accuracy, reported UPI. Full Story

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) became effective on June 21, 2021. Compliance with most of the provisions was required by July 6, 2021. The last of those provisions – those pertaining to training, ventilation, and barriers – weren’t required until just recently on July 21, 2021, reported JDSupra. The ETS establishes new requirements to protect healthcare and healthcare support worksers across the nation from COVID-19. With some exceptions, the Healthcare ETS applies to all settings where any employee provides healthcare services or healthcare support services. Full Story

The House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations subcommittee has proposed a $200 million increase in Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and $19.5 million to implement the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for fiscal year 2022. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced the availability of an estimated $103 million in American Rescue Plan funding over a three-year period to reduce burnout and promote mental health among the health workforce. These investments, which take into particular consideration the needs of rural and medically underserved communities, will help health care organizations establish a culture of wellness among the health and public safety workforce and will support training efforts that build resiliency for those at the beginning of their health careers. Full Story

The American Nurses Association’s (ANA) longstanding position for all nurses and health care professionals to be immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases now includes the three COVID-19 vaccines being administered under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process. The ANA Board of Directors unanimously approved the position that all nurses should get vaccinated unless they have a medical issue that makes vaccination unadvisable. This position extends only to the three vaccines currently available under EUA and does not extend to any future COVID-19 vaccines that might become available under the EUA process. Full Story

Dr. Vivek Murthy issued the first Surgeon General's Advisory of this administration to warn the American public about the urgent threat of health misinformation. Health misinformation is information that is false, inaccurate or misleading, according to the best available evidence. This advisory addresses how health care professionals and others can confront health misinformation by helping people better identify and limit its spread. Click here to view the full advisory is available on the surgeon general's webpage.

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.