Discussion Board Week 4

Shanell McFadden

 For this week’s discussion board, I was able to use ProQuest in the Walden Library to search for a peer reviewed articles for the assignment.  My area of interest and focus is mental health.  ProQuest in the Walden Library is accessible to my peers enrolled in the university and I do recommend it for them but not accessible for my colleagues.  I would not be able to recommend using ProQuest to help my professional colleagues gain more information about mental health practice and how it affects the nurse practitioner’s role. Some of the difficulties that I faced when searching ProQuest in the Walden Library database is the use of keywords.  Often times I find that when I search general keywords, I have an overwhelming amount of results that not always meet the criteria of what I am looking for. For example, when searching through ProQuest I noticed that the keywords are being highlighted not only in the titles but in some of the literature even if the topic of the article is not necessarily what I am looking for.  

 With the articles that I am able to find such as, “Meeting The Needs of People with Mental Illness” (Ramirez, 2016), discusses how the expansion of access healthcare for individuals with mental health illnesses came about. It highlights how people with mental health illness is a significant public health issue (Ramirez, 2016).  It also discusses the acts that allowed for the expansion and how it impacted the need for more PMHNP’s.  Unfortunately, I have learned that the scope of practice for the PMHNP is limited due to regulatory barriers which explains in part the shortage of specialty advance practice nurses (Ramirez, 2016).  The PMHNP was just offered exams to certify and allow the receipt of credentials in 1999 per the ANCC (Ramirez, 2016).  To say that this is a new area with a desperate need is an understatement.  

 The shortage of PMHNP and the need for them fueled my interest in continuing my education to assist in providing care for a growing demographic.  I have family with mental health illnesses and to watch them not be treated medically appropriate is another driving force that caused me to make the final decision to pursue this degree in advanced nursing practice. 

References

Young, C.C. & Calloway S.J. (2020) Assessing mental health stigma: Nurse practitioners’ attitudes regarding managing patients with mental health disorders. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Electronic publication. doi: 10.1097/JXX. 0000000000000351

Chapman, S.A., Phoenix, B.J., Hahn, T.E., & Strod, D.C. (2018). Utilization and economic contribution of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner in public behavioral health services. The Behavioral Health Workforce: Planning, Practice, and Preparation. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 54(6), Supplement 3: S243-S249.

Ramirez, J. (2016). Meeting the needs of people with mental illness: Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners, 97(1), 42-46. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/nahs/docview/1771785859/98CB314F30D64C43PQ/2?accountid=14872

Jennifer Lubrano 

Week 4 Main Discussion Post

            This week we are looking closer at scholarly writing also known as academic writing.  The goal of this style or category of writing is to convey a logical argument from an objective standpoint (Writing Center, 2020). It avoids emotions, Inflammatory, or biased language. Whether you personally agree or disagree with the idea that you are writing about it must be presented accurately and objectively (Writing Center, 2020). Some tips are to use clear statements with a limited focus, have a logical structure, and be evidenced-based (all statements must be supported by evidence). On the flip side, some common mistakes include wordiness, using vague statements, using informational language, description without analysis, and not properly citing sources (Writing, 2020).

            As I started searching for my article this week, I had a few difficulties such as the amount of information that was available through all the databases (there are thousands of articles). Then questions started to arise such as how to pick out the pertinent information and how do I narrow down my findings? This is when I turned to the resources in the library to help guide me in my research. I searched multiple databases to find the article I chose.  I also used the filters to help narrow down the selection (went from thousands to just a few). I did use EBSCO host to find the article and feel that this could be useful to my peers as it has so many articles on a vast array of topics.

            I chose the article “working with families impacted by the opioid crisis: Education, best practices, and providing hope”. I chose this as I understand that the opioid crisis is a heavy burden today I wanted to look further into not only the person with addiction but the family as well.

References:

Sapp, A. J., & Hooten, P. (2019). Working with families impacted by the opioid crisis: Education, best practices, and providing hope. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 33(5), 3.

Walden University Writing Center. (n.d.). Scholarly writing: Overview. Retrieved October 12, 2018, from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/scholarly

What Is Academic Writing?. (2020). Retrieved 16 April 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-academic-writing-1689052

pls response to those two discussions separately and cite two sources each