SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner completing my DNP. I have been a psychiatric nurse since 1988. I have had the privilege of working in multiple states, multiple levels of care and with patients through out the life span. I have 22 years of psychiatric nursing leadership experience. My highest achievement was to be the Operations Leader of Behavioral Health Services providing nursing supervision for inpatient, residential beds, and partial hospitalization programs in a multi facility organization. This organization had 5 metro hospitals in Nebraska. I served on multiple committees and represented behavioral services on the Chief Nursing Executive Committee. In 2012, I began practicing as a psychiatric APRN. Currently, I provide care at a community based mental health organization serving adults. The majority of my patients are indigent and about 80% have mental health and substance abuse diagnosis. Many of the patients are transitioning from acute psychiatric hospitalization to community based care. This transitional period is a critical vulnerable time for patient safety and engagement. The goal of my research is to design and implement a psychiatric transition model to improve patient safety and engagement in their care. There is a lack of transition models for psychiatric care, thus chronic care medical models have provided some framework. My experience in both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care and leadership will be valuable to my research. I am hopeful that my research findings will provide a foundation to improve the safety of psychiatric patients.