Grant

Aiming to help eliminate the severe shortage of nurses for underserved populations, the three-year project will prepare advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in child and adolescent psychiatric nursing to provide culturally competent care to vulnerable children, adolescents and their families with acute and chronic mental illness.

Specifically, Northeastern will expand its existing graduate program which prepares APRNs in the role of both the Child/Adolescent Psychiatric and Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist (CAP-CNS), and the relatively new designation as Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (Family-PMHNP). The grant will make adding relevant clinical and classroom learning opportunities possible, and graduates will be qualified to work with children, adolescents and their families dealing with psychiatric and mental health issues.

“Among the project’s objectives are to recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate 30 students from the child and adolescent and family psychiatric APRN graduate program at Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences,” says Glod, APRN, PhD, FAAN, who will serve as Project Director. “These students are committed to practicing in medically underserved areas, and they will be placed into psychiatric and behavioral health settings including community health centers that serve racially, culturally and ethnically diverse populations.”

According to HRSA, twelve counties in Massachusetts are designated as medically underserved areas, and nine of the Commonwealth’s counties are deemed health profession shortage areas (HPSAs).

“About twenty percent of children and adolescents will suffer from a major mental illness in their lifetime, yet there is a severe local and national shortage of qualified mental health professionals equipped to assess and treat children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders,” says Glod. “This grant will allow us to produce a number of well-trained professionals who will contribute to eliminating this shortage.”

Project objectives also include:

• Recruiting, enrolling, retaining, and graduating 10-15% of students from the child and adolescent and family psychiatric APRN program each year from underrepresented minority groups
• Expanding formal, scheduled opportunities for secondary students from Northeastern University’s Health Careers Academy to expose minority students to nursing and other health professions as potential career options