Psych Nurse Tackles Tough Issues on Capitol Hill
By Kelli M. Donley

Barbara E. Wolfe, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, has been a psychiatric nurse for 17 years. As an advocate for the profession, she recently argued for increased funding for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) before Congress.

"Because the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education is responsible for making decisions about allocating dollars to the respective governmental agencies/program, it was important to make this committee aware of related issues of funding importance to psychiatric-mental health nursing," Wolfe says of her testimony before the committee April 30. "The American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) recommended increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute for Nursing Research, and the National Institute on Aging). Two other identified areas in need of increased funding include resources for the Health Resources and Services Administration to expand nursing education and loan repayment programs, and funding for the Center for Mental Health Services housed under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Funding for these areas is critically important for expanding the workforce of the specialty and provide the much needed research to inform our practice."

Wolfe, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School and an associate of the Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership, says nurses and organizations need to speak up to make change occur. She was selected to speak for the APNA because of her experience in advocating.

"APNA has been very active in being a voice for the professional's responsibility to shape health policy," she says. " My professional and organization activities provided a foundation from which to speak to Congress about issues critical to the specialty, including participation on the APNA Research Steering Committee, chairing the Federal Mentorship Initiative, and co-chairing, with Carolyn Cochrane, MD, the establishment of an APNA Research Council."

Chairman Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) was inquisitive during Wolfe's testimony.

"Chairman Regula had a number of important questions about the specialty of psychiatric-mental health nursing including questions about our work settings, education preparation and populations served," she says." This provided an opportunity to relay the vast scope of the specialty and contributions that psychiatric-mental health nurses make everyday. It also provided an opportunity to reiterate the current needs, particularly when you consider some of the staggering statistics related to mental health."

Funding was one of several issues discussed. Wolfe also told the committee that more medical research into mental health issues is crucial. However, she says that there are other problems in the nursing field that also need to be addressed.

"One of the immediate issues that faces the profession at-large is the nursing shortage," she says." Other complex challenges for the specialty include standards of preparation, patient's access to care, parity, patient safety and safe staffing and credentialing and reimbursement. Taking an active leadership role in shaping healthcare policy (at a federal, state and local level) assists to address many of these issues as these legislative bodies deliberate funding for programs that influence the practice of psychiatric-mental health nursing."

There are advocates for the profession within Congress who are also working to improve the field.

"Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-Calif.) was instrumental in passing legislation of the nurse reinvestment act which will provide funding for nurse scholarships, repayment loan and faculty-education and training to assist with the nursing shortage," she says. "Congresswoman Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) is a co-sponsor of the House Mental-Health Parity Bill. For these efforts, she received the APNA Annual Congressional Service Award in ."

Wolfe says a method of bringing more attention to the issues facing psychiatric nursing today may be bringing healthcare workers together to a united front.

"Collaborative efforts among all psychiatric-mental health nursing subspecialties is the best way to accomplish a Capitol Hill agenda related to topics that we all deal with such as parity, seclusion and restraint, and the nursing shortage."

For more information about the organization, visit: www.apna.org.

Click here to Subscribe

More News