Graduate School of Nursing students are learning about behavioral health in primary care with online training from the Center for Integrated Primary Care at UMass Medical School. |
Online courses in behavioral health in primary are are enabling Graduate School of Nursing students in the clinical year of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program to fulfill their program requirements despite having clinical hours suspended due to COVID-19. The courses have been developed and are disseminated nationwide by the Center for Integrated Primary Care in the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health at UMass Medical School, also home to the GSN.
“It’s wonderful that our students have been afforded this opportunity to enrich their clinical year under these unusual circumstances,” said Rachel Richards, DNP, assistant professor of nursing and DNP clinical year coordinator. “One of the things we’re appreciating during our transitions to distance learning is the rich resources we are able to tap into. This is a great example of innovative ways to enrich future curricula.”
Center for Integrated Primary Care courses are available to practicing clinicians and health care workers nationwide; registrants typically pay hundreds of dollars to take the courses and earn continuing education units required to maintain their licensure.
But in the face of educational hurdles raised by COVID-19, center leadership decided to offer several of its online courses at no charge to medical, nursing, behavioral health and other health care trainees at academic institutions nationwide.
"In light of the profound stresses associated with COVID, we can expect that even more patients will benefit from care provided by nurses and physicians who addresses both physical and mental health needs,” said Daniel Mullin, PsyD, associate professor of family medicine & community health and director of the Center for Integrated Primary Care. “The center’s team of clinicians, educators and instructional designers are happy to share more than a decade of experience delivering online education focused on the integration of physical and mental health with our colleagues at UMass Medical School and beyond."
Nine students in the GSN’s family nurse practitioner and adult/gerontology primary care nurse practitioner tracks are completing CIPC courses during the remainder of the spring semester. Behavioral health courses offer valuable interprofessional enrichment for doctoral nursing students who are preparing to be family nurse practitioners and adult/gerontological primary care nurse practitioners.
Courses topics include creating and managing an integrated primary care practice, bio-psycho-social treatment, and dealing with substances and pain in primary care. Patient-centered health care is an introduction to care management topics for those who work as interprofessional health care team members.
Beyond the UMMS campus, 150 behavioral health trainees from 23 states and Puerto Rico have taken advantage of the free course offerings.
