SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

I came to nursing later in my professional career after working in public policy development, public administration, and owning a small business. My goal has always to make the world a better place, and to try to help others realize their greatest potential that they determine. Since becoming a nurse, I have worked at a local jail, for Portland Public health; and since becoming a nurse practitioner have worked with people who are homeless, refugees and immigrants and people who have no means to pay for their health insurance. My intended doctoral project is to find ways to link behavioral health services into primary care sites. I have often seen people who come into our clinic, and to other primary care sites, who have an underlying mental health disorder and they are not diagnosed and screened for a potential mental health disorder. I would like to work on a protocol that provides for the screening of mental health disorders when a person comes in with certain somatic complaints.