The Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Chan Medical School is implementing a new statewide fellowship program to expand the pipeline of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners entering the community health center workforce.
“What we’re trying to do is build capacity within community health centers for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners,” said Mechelle Plasse, PhD, APRN, assistant professor of nursing and director of mental health nursing programs. “We can integrate specialized nurse practitioners into the health center teams to increase access to general health care and psychiatric mental health care at the community level.”
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services awarded a four-year, $11.6 million grant to the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, with funding received from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Fiscal Recovery Fund to create the fellowship; address the increasing demand for psychiatric and mental health services in the state; help close the workforce gaps; and resume new staff training, teaching, and licensing in the state’s health and human services that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We can integrate specialized nurse practitioners into the health center teams to increase access to general health care and psychiatric mental health care at the community level.”
There are more than 200 community health and hospital licensed centers in Massachusetts providing care to more than 1 million patients, a large majority of whom are low income and come from a historically underrepresented population. The goal of the fellowship program is to increase the community health center psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner workforce pipeline and increase the diversity of the workforce by recruiting and placing at least one graduate level fellow and two student fellows in at least 25 community health centers over a four-year period. The first cohort is already underway, and a second cohort is accepting health center and fellow applications now.
“The fellowship is open to all community health centers statewide, as well as hospital-licensed health centers, and we are partnering with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers to reach all health centers in the state and share this fellowship program,” said Leanne Winchester, MS, RN, senior project manager.
The Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing designed the model and planned the program in partnership with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. The psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program at UMass Chan is one of nine such programs in the state.
In addition to facilitated clinical experiences, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing provides fellows with various weekly education experiences such as didactics on topics related to practicing in community health settings, an opioid and safe prescribing training immersion solution, and online self-directed courses related to integrated primary care. Fellows will also have ongoing access to mentoring, professional development and clinical support through case discussions and practice supervision.
Eligible fellows include students who are registered nurses in a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program and graduates, including advanced practice nurses who have already completed the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program within 18 months of the start of the fellowship program or have been recently hired as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at a health center.
Graduate fellows will be under a 12-month service commitment and student fellows will participate in a semester-long placement. Community health centers that have received funding ensure the fellows benefit from mentoring and learning opportunities, and team-based care.
For more information on the fellowship, visit the program website.
