This 90-minute virtual consultation call with ACT teams and ACT stakeholders consists of a mini-didactic training on a topic of relevance and interest to ACT teams (at times circling back to topics related to navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and related issues as they come up), plus opportunities to pose consultation questions and learn from other ACT teams and their shared experiences within ACT. The Northwest MHTTC is partnering with the Institute for Best Practices at the University of North Carolina to host and facilitate these regular meetings for ACT teams.
The Role of the ACT Nurse: Using the DACUM process to define ACT RN competencies and to develop a robust onboarding and professional development curriculum. This presentation will describe progress toward creating a comprehensive onboarding and professional development curriculum for new and experienced ACT RNs. The field of nursing is broad in scope and the role of the ACT nurse requires specialized skills in community-based nursing, psychiatric care, psychopharmacology, and independent decision making. New ACT nurses may not have all the competencies required in all these essential areas. To ensure that ACT nurses have the knowledge and competencies they need to perform this role, the Oregon Center of Excellence for Assertive Community Treatment (OCEACT) has partnered with nursing education experts to develop an ACT nursing training curriculum for onboarding and professional development. This presentation describes progress to date including using the Designing a CUrriculuM (DACUM) method to identify the needed competencies for the ACT RN. In the DACUM, a panel of expert ACT RNs identified the essential duties and tasks of the RN role. This presentation will present the DACUM results and discuss the verification process. A new ACT RN self-assessment is being developed to identify training needs so that the OCEACT nurse consultant can develop an individualized onboarding training. Over the last two years, OCEACT has provided trainings and individual consultation to ACT nurses in the areas of: mental health disorders, delegation and MAR training, medication distribution, ACT nursing interventions, and psychiatric pharmacology.
Paula Gubrud-Howe EdD, RN CHSE, ANEF, FAAN, is a Professor Emeritus from Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing. Dr. Gubrud has over 30 years of experience in nursing and health professions education. Her nursing education experience expands multiple levels of nursing education from LPN to graduate programs. Paula is a national and international speaker and consultant for colleges, universities and health systems providing faculty development courses and curricular integration expertise focused on competency-based education, clinical education and simulation-based learning experiences. Paula has authored a medical-surgical textbook, numerous book chapters and articles on simulation and clinical education. Her research interests are focused on applying clinical learning and simulation-based learning experiences to facilitate development of clinical reasoning. Paula was a leader in the Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education nursing curriculum redesign that implemented a new nursing curriculum in 13 Oregon community college RN programs and all 5 campuses of the Oregon Health & Sciences University.
Heidi Herinckx, MA, is Senior Director of two of Oregon Centers of Excellence, the Oregon Center of Excellence for Assertive Community Treatment and the Oregon Supported Employment Center of Excellence. Heidi Herinckx has a MA in Medical Sociology from Rutgers University and over 20 years of experience in the mental health field. Prior to joining the centers, Ms. Herinckx was a mental health services researcher at the Regional Research Institute at Portland State University. Her primary areas of research included the effectiveness of Assertive Community Treatment, Supported Employment, Mental Health Courts and peer providers of mental health services. Ms. Herinckx was co-investigator on an evaluation of the statewide implementation of the Oregon Consortium of Nursing Education funded by Robert Wood Johnson. Through this work she developed an OCNE curriculum fidelity measure to ensure all 13 OCNE colleges implemented the OCNE nursing curriculum consistently across all campuses. She has helped mental health programs in Oregon and Washington implement many evidence-based practices and developed tools to evaluate the effectiveness of services with the mission to improve the quality of lives for those living with mental health issues.
Maria Monroe-DeVita, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine and Director of the Washington State Center of Excellence in First Episode Psychosis or Lorna Moser, PhD, Director of the UNC ACT Technical Assistance Center in the UNC Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health and Coordinator of the North Carolina ACT Coalition.
Lorna Moser, PhDDr. Moser is the Director of the UNC ACT Technical Assistance Center in the UNC Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health; and Coordinator of the North Carolina ACT Coalition.
Maria Monroe-DeVita, PhDDr. Monroe-DeVita is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Director, Washington State Center of Excellence in First Episode Psychosis.
