Patient-Centered Homes and Integrated Behavioral Health Care: Reclaiming the Role of “Consultant” for Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

Abstract

The notion of patient-centered care has long been linked with nursing practice since Florence Nightingale. The discipline of nursing is focused on the holistic care of individuals, families, and communities in times of sickness and/or health. However, in psychiatric-mental health nursing, the concepts of mental health and psychiatric illness still remain marginalized in our health care delivery systems, as well as in nursing education, knowledge development, and practice. Even with the concept of patient-centered homes, acute and primary care providers are reluctant to embrace care of those with psychiatric illness in their respective settings. Psychiatric illness was and continues to be in the shadows, hidden and often ignored by the larger community as well as by health care providers. This paper describes a Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) Advanced Nursing Education (ANE) training grant's objective of reintegrating psychiatric-mental health practice into ALL health care delivery systems using the concept of patient-centered nursing care as a foundation for, and promotion of, the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMH-NP) as the “navigator” for not only the patients and their families, but also for their acute and primary care colleagues using an Interprofessional Education Model. The major barriers and lessons learned from this project as well as the need for psychiatric-mental health nurses to reclaim their role as a consultant/liaison in acute, primary, and long-term care settings will be discussed. The PMHNP as a consultant/liaison is being revitalized as an innovative advanced practice nursing health care model in North Carolina.