ABSTRACT
Understanding and treating mental illness has improved in many ways as a result of the fast pace of technological advances. The technologies that have the greatest potential impact are those that (1) increase the knowledge of how the brain functions and changes based on interventions, (2) have the potential to personalize interventions based on understanding genetic factors of drug metabolism and pharmacodynamics, and (3) use information technology to provide treatment in the absence of an adequate mental health workforce. Technologies are explored for psychiatric nurses to consider. Psychiatric nurses are encouraged to consider the experiences of psychiatric patients, including poor health, stigmatization, and suffering.
Subject(s)
Computer-Assisted Instruction/methods , Mental Disorders/nursing , Nurse-Patient Relations , Patient Education as Topic/standards , Psychiatric Nursing/organization & administration , Humans , Nurse's RoleABSTRACT
The Michigan Academic Consortium of academic nurse-managed primary care centers supported member sites to venture into computer-based advances with the potential to improve quality of health services and students' educational experiences. The experiences of this consortium as it incorporated electronic health records in tandem with an electronic patient management system at several of its member sites reveal the benefits and challenges of such an endeavor. The processes of selection, adoption, and implementation of the electronic health record are discussed in this article. Many lessons learned in the process are discussed.
Subject(s)
Community Health Centers/organization & administration , Medical Records Systems, Computerized/organization & administration , Nursing Faculty Practice/organization & administration , Primary Health Care/organization & administration , Attitude of Health Personnel , Attitude to Computers , Diffusion of Innovation , Health Services Needs and Demand , Humans , Interinstitutional Relations , Michigan , Nurse Practitioners/education , Nurse Practitioners/psychology , Nursing Evaluation Research , Nursing Methodology Research , Outcome Assessment, Health Care , Pilot Projects , Program Development , Program Evaluation , Schools, Nursing/organization & administration , Software , Students, Nursing/psychology , Systems Integration , Universities/organization & administrationABSTRACT
A comprehensive evaluation plan was developed to assess the outcomes of a multiuniversity project to support the development of academic nurse-managed centers (ANMCs). The evaluation included measuring ANMC impact on the clients and communities served, on students, and on the sponsoring faculties and universities. This article includes a discussion of the processes used in evaluation plan development, the variables measured, the tools developed to measure selected variables, and a summary of evaluation findings. Recommendations for use of selected evaluation components across ANMCs are presented.
Subject(s)
Community Health Centers/standards , Nurse Practitioners/standards , Nursing Evaluation Research/methods , Nursing Faculty Practice/standards , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care/methods , Program Evaluation/methods , Ambulatory Care/economics , Ambulatory Care/standards , Community Health Centers/economics , Cost-Benefit Analysis , Data Collection/methods , Education, Nursing, Graduate/organization & administration , Focus Groups , Humans , Michigan , Nurse Practitioners/economics , Nurse Practitioners/education , Nursing Faculty Practice/economics , Patient Satisfaction , Primary Health Care/economics , Primary Health Care/standards , Quality of Health Care , Research Design , Schools, Nursing/organization & administration , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This is an exciting time to be involved with the care of patients with mental illness. More and more information about what is happening in the brain when mental illness develops is becoming available. Even more important, however, clinicians need not be seduced by the secrets of the brain being discovered. Psychiatric nurses must remember that patients have real and frightening experiences. They alone must learn to adapt and function with their symptoms of mental illness. To the degree that clinicians become enamored of the science and technology, they may lose their empathy with the human experience of mental illness [11]. Nurses, who help people respond to their illnesses, must engage the science with curiosity and engage the person with empathy.
