(October 30, 2020) Lisa Anderson learned through her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) studies at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth that sometimes finding the best solution for patients means walking out the clinic doors and up the capitol steps.
Anderson, a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (NP) in San Antonio, received this year’s Texas Nurse Practitioners Policy Fellowship. She will use the opportunity to develop a policy brief to make a compelling case to state legislators about the importance of expanding NPs’ prescription-writing authority to Schedule II drugs. These controlled substances include a class of medications that are used to manage pain and other serious conditions, and most importantly to Anderson’s practice, stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“My niche is ADHD,” said Anderson, MSN, RN, who expects to earn her DNP in the spring. “I love that population, and my number one barrier to adequately treating ADHD patients is the inability to prescribe stimulants.”
Anderson gained important policy experience this year as COVID-19 forced students and faculty to get creative in fulfilling required clinical hours.
Students at the DNP level usually come to the program with plenty of direct patient experience, explained Assistant ProfessorKathleen Siders, DNP, APRN, FNP, coordinator for the DNP Advanced Practice Track. As an alternative, five students opted to assist the efforts by Professor Laura J. Benjamins, MD, and the Memorial Hermann Health System to address human trafficking. Benjamins, MD, MPH, is director of the MD/MPH dual degree program at McGovern Medical School.
休斯顿举行s the dubious distinction of being the top city in the nation for human trafficking, with Texas in second place among states. The DNP students took on various aspects of the issue. They developed a resource handbook, an educational presentation for health care professionals, and a poster with a hotline number and QR code to be hung in public places such as bathroom stalls and hotel rooms.
“The victims will end up in emergency departments and clinics for health care,” Siders explained. “They are very tightly controlled and groomed to the point that they don’t always even recognize what’s happening to themselves.”
Anderson lives and works in San Antonio and selected Cizik School of Nursing’s DNP program in part because of its hybrid online/on-campus approach. Since she doesn’t spend as much time in Houston as the other students, she decided to assess needs related to human trafficking along the I-10 corridor from El Paso to San Antonio. The resulting policy brief advocates for age-appropriate curriculum for high-school students and mandatory postings in hotels and motels, like the notice her classmates designed.
“父母认为，‘那不是问题。这在我的学校或附近没有发生，’”安德森说。“但是事实是，它在任何地方都在发生，这是没人想谈论的。”
Texas Nurse Practitioners（TNP）倡导全州NP的倡导者，安德森不仅对她以前的政策工作，而且对她的精神病/心理健康专业化印象深刻。
该协会政府事务主任艾琳·库萨克（Erin Cusack）说：“我认为精神病学NP的角色并不那么众所周知。”“我认为这是一个很好的机会，可以教育决策者有关该角色以及它在应对德克萨斯州的心理健康挑战和短缺方面所发挥的关键作品。”
TNP began offering the policy fellowship last year, and Anderson was chosen as the second recipient among more than 40 applicants from around the state. She will have the advantage of serving the six-month fellowship while the Texas Legislature is in session this spring. She will learn about the policymaking process, participate in coalition meetings, and – COVID-19 permitting – attend some high-level meetings and hearings in Austin.
Public policy is an important part of the DNP curriculum, and to make progress on structural and systemic health care challenges, nurses must understand the larger issues at play, Cusack said.
“The more we can educate NPs on the broader system, the bigger impact they can have not only on their profession but on their patients,” she stressed.
