Frederica W. O'Connor

Incorporating standardized patients into a psychosocial nurse practitioner program.

Interactions with standardized patients (SPs) provide customized, immediate clinical learning for graduate nursing students. SPs are lay persons trained to portray a role in a faculty-designed health care scenario for a series of students. Student learning results from the experience of the encounter, performance feedback from the SP, subsequent classroom discussion with peers, faculty critique, and review of the videotaped interaction. Design and implementation of an SP experience involves clarification of goals for the encounter, development of the clinical scenario, recruitment and training of SPs, preparation of students, and management of the logistics of the exercise. Although the process is labor-intensive, we have found SP experiences versatile, valuable, and popular with students.

Symptom monitoring for relapse prevention in schizophrenia

Abstract This article reviews the stress-vulnerability model of schizophrenic relapse, develops an empirically based rationale for symptom monitoring as a component of relapse prevention, and describes techniques for identifying early signs of exacerbation.

Preparing psychosocial nurse practitioners for health care delivery

A central task for faculty in programs preparing health care practitioners is to remain timely in educating for the prevailing and future social and health services context. Current considerations in preparing advanced practice psychiatric nurses include the need for greater recognition of comorbidity, concerns about health care access and utilization for vulnerable populations, and changing patterns of practice. In addition, there is a great need to expand the cultural competence and diversity of the population of advanced practice nurses who deliver care to recipients in an increasingly multicultural society. This article describes the educational program developed at the University of Washington to prepare expanded role Psychosocial Nurse Practitioners and sets forth the rationale for major decisions and current directions.