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Consider This…
Consider This. . . Remaining Relevant. . . . Preparing Practitioners: bMore, Better, and DifferentQ
B
ehavioral health care is changing—not exactly headline news. These changes are spurred by declining resources, bmanaged care,Q increasingly astute consumer and family member organizations, as well as reports such as the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health and the President’s New Freedom Commission. All of these forces demand educators to create mental health educational programs that produce individuals who understand and enhance the mandate to do things bmore, better, and different.Q
In 2001, a cadre of the country’s leaders in mental health workforce development guided the work of The Annapolis Coalition as they assembled panels and workgroups to review and analyze research on innovations in workforce development. A 2003 white paper issued by the group recommends 16 bbest practicesQ for educating practitioners in all mental health disciplines. These practices are grouped into three categories: methods and content of education and training, diversity of training sites, and characteristics of students and teachers. Shortly after the publication of this white paper, Dr. Grayce Sills began taking people to lunch. From these (definitely not free) lunches, well-fed individuals dedicated to transforming behavioral health care became part of a Collaborative for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Health Education. This unique collaborative, directed by Grayce and her social work colleague Dr. Ken Yeager, is committed to operationalizing the recommendations of The Annapolis Coalition. They jointly developed a curriculum (didactic and clinical) that brings together graduate students and faculty from primary care, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, family practice nursing, social work, psychology, couples and family therapy, and counseling. The curriculum combines weekly clinical seminars with placement of students in traditional and nontraditional mental health settings designed to transform theoretical learning about the integration of mind and body and collaboration among disciplines into practice knowledge. Nontraditional clinical settings include supportive housing for formerly homeless women where behavioral health students and faculty interact with expert practitioners from primary care, dentistry, and alternative therapy. Intradisciplinary collaboration also takes place as family nurse practitioner students learn from their psychiatric colleagues and vice versa. School-based health care sites are next on the agenda. Content and teaching methods in the seminar, as well as methods of collaboration in an increasingly regulated industry, focus on best practices and evidence-based interventions. Free exchange of ideas and dialogue between experts in the field, consumers and family members, and students and faculty promote a crucial understanding of unique and generic discipline roles and approaches to the delivery of behavioral health care. To remain relevant in an increasingly complex and integrated practice environment, psychiatric mental health nurses and others care providers must step out of their guild towers and enter into the reality of practice in the 21st century.—Jeanne A. Clement, EdD, APRN, BC, FAAN is Collaborative faculty and Director, Graduate Program in PMHN, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University. Grayce M. Sills, PhD, RN, FAAN is Dean/Professor Emeritus and Co-Director of the Collaborative for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Health Education, The Ohio State University, OSU/Harding Hospital. http://www.annapoliscoalition.org/national_strategic_planning.php
Kris A. McLoughlin, DNP, APRN, BC, CSAC, and Catherine Kane, PhD, RN, FAAN, are the editors of the bConsider This. . .Q column, a forum for addressing current topics affecting psychiatric nursing. We encourage your commentaries, opinions, and ideas on professional, policy, and practice issues. Responses to this column in the form of letters to the editor are welcome and encouraged. The opinions presented in this column are solely the views of the authors. Submissions to bConsider This. . .Q are welcome and should be no longer than 450 words. If references are used, there should be no more than three, which will be included in the 450-word limit. Please refer to bInformation for AuthorsQ for submission address.
B
ehavioral health care is changing—not exactly headline news. These changes are spurred by declining resources, bmanaged care,Q increasingly astute consumer and family member organizations, as well as reports such as the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health and the President’s New Freedom Commission. All of these forces demand educators to create mental health educational programs that produce individuals who understand and enhance the mandate to do things bmore, better, and different.Q
In 2001, a cadre of the country’s leaders in mental health workforce development guided the work of The Annapolis Coalition as they assembled panels and workgroups to review and analyze research on innovations in workforce development. A 2003 white paper issued by the group recommends 16 bbest practicesQ for educating practitioners in all mental health disciplines. These practices are grouped into three categories: methods and content of education and training, diversity of training sites, and characteristics of students and teachers. Shortly after the publication of this white paper, Dr. Grayce Sills began taking people to lunch. From these (definitely not free) lunches, well-fed individuals dedicated to transforming behavioral health care became part of a Collaborative for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Health Education. This unique collaborative, directed by Grayce and her social work colleague Dr. Ken Yeager, is committed to operationalizing the recommendations of The Annapolis Coalition. They jointly developed a curriculum (didactic and clinical) that brings together graduate students and faculty from primary care, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, family practice nursing, social work, psychology, couples and family therapy, and counseling. The curriculum combines weekly clinical seminars with placement of students in traditional and nontraditional mental health settings designed to transform theoretical learning about the integration of mind and body and collaboration among disciplines into practice knowledge. Nontraditional clinical settings include supportive housing for formerly homeless women where behavioral health students and faculty interact with expert practitioners from primary care, dentistry, and alternative therapy. Intradisciplinary collaboration also takes place as family nurse practitioner students learn from their psychiatric colleagues and vice versa. School-based health care sites are next on the agenda. Content and teaching methods in the seminar, as well as methods of collaboration in an increasingly regulated industry, focus on best practices and evidence-based interventions. Free exchange of ideas and dialogue between experts in the field, consumers and family members, and students and faculty promote a crucial understanding of unique and generic discipline roles and approaches to the delivery of behavioral health care. To remain relevant in an increasingly complex and integrated practice environment, psychiatric mental health nurses and others care providers must step out of their guild towers and enter into the reality of practice in the 21st century.—Jeanne A. Clement, EdD, APRN, BC, FAAN is Collaborative faculty and Director, Graduate Program in PMHN, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University. Grayce M. Sills, PhD, RN, FAAN is Dean/Professor Emeritus and Co-Director of the Collaborative for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Health Education, The Ohio State University, OSU/Harding Hospital. http://www.annapoliscoalition.org/national_strategic_planning.php
Kris A. McLoughlin, DNP, APRN, BC, CSAC, and Catherine Kane, PhD, RN, FAAN, are the editors of the bConsider This. . .Q column, a forum for addressing current topics affecting psychiatric nursing. We encourage your commentaries, opinions, and ideas on professional, policy, and practice issues. Responses to this column in the form of letters to the editor are welcome and encouraged. The opinions presented in this column are solely the views of the authors. Submissions to bConsider This. . .Q are welcome and should be no longer than 450 words. If references are used, there should be no more than three, which will be included in the 450-word limit. Please refer to bInformation for AuthorsQ for submission address.