By Nyesha Stone
Starting in January of 2020, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and Medicine will launch a yearlong nurse practitioner postgraduate residency program.
MCW is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee of Nursing on the program, which will be targeted specifically towards nurse practitioners working in psychiatry mental health. The partnership stems from a $1.7 million, four-year grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
This program will help post-graduate students transition from school into their practice, said Kim Litwack, dean at UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing. This program is meant for those who’ve only been a nurse practitioner for 18 months or less.
“Many of them [students] feel unprepared to enter into the practice,” said Litwack.
Litwack explained that there’s a shortage of psychiatric nurses and this program will play a role in improving those numbers.
According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANPs), only 2.4 percent of nurses specialize in psychiatric or mental health practice for adults, while three percent handle family-related cases.
“We have the ability to impact the health of the residents in the state,” she added.
According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), 6 in 10 adults in the US have a chronic disease. Chronic diseases not only effect the body, but also the mind.
Julie Raaum, DNP, director of the Medical College Physician’s Office of Advanced Practice at the MCW, said this program will train nurses to work in underprivileged areas in Milwaukee because that’s where the real need is. Four nurses will be accepted into each cohort and applications are rolling.
“Wisconsin has fewer mental health professionals per capita than most states, and this nurse
residency is one of many efforts to increase the numbers of mental health professionals,” Raaum said in a press release.
The program will offer mentorship in different clinical rotations including the general inpatient psychiatric unit, child and adolescent psychiatry, embedded psychiatric ambulatory clinics and more.
For more information and to request application details, contact the Medical College of Wisconsin recruiter Gabrielle Pollard at gpollard@mcw.edu.