These leaders are prime examples of nurses who are at the center of advancing nursing and mental health care.
Falls Church, VA (PRWEB) August 17, 2016
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) is pleased to announce the results of the elections for the APNA Board of Directors and 2017 Nominating Committee. Elected by psychiatric-mental health nursing colleagues, these members will begin their terms at the close of the APNA 30th Annual Conference, October 19-22, in Hartford, Connecticut.
Elected to the APNA Board of Directors are President-Elect Linda S. Beeber, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing; Treasurer Donna G. Rolin, PhD, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC of the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing and Psychiatric Associates of Central Texas; Member-at-Large Michael J. Polacek, MSN, RN-BC of Salem Health; and Member-at-Large Christine Tebaldi, RN, MS, PMHNP-BC of McLean Hospital. Elected to the 2017 Nominating Committee are Diana McIntosh, PhD, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, of the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing; Kerry Peterson, PhD, DNP, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Carole A. Shea, PhD, RN, FAAN of Fairfield University School of Nursing.
"We are thrilled and honored to welcome these nursing leaders to the APNA Board of Directors and Nominating Committee,” says APNA President Mary Ann Nihart, MA, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC. “As an organization more than 10,000 strong, APNA empowers psychiatric-mental health nurses to take a leadership role in promoting the mental health and wellness of the population. These leaders are prime examples of nurses who are at the center of advancing nursing and mental health care.”
Linda S. Beeber, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, the incoming President-Elect, is The Francis Hill Fox Distinguished Term Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. She currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, APNA’s peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and co-chair of the APNA Research Council. In the past she has represented the organization at a variety of stakeholder meetings, including roundtables with the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute for Nursing Research, and the National Academy of Medicine Psychosocial Interventions Task Force.
Also elected to the Board of Directors is Diana G. Rolin, PhD, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC, who will be serving as Treasurer. Rolin is the Director of the PMHNP Program at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing and a PMH-APRN with Psychiatric Associates of Central Texas. Before her election to the Board, Rolin was the co-chair of the APNA Education Council, and served on the APNA Institute for Safe Environments Violence Prevention Task Force, which recently developed a position paper on the role of psychiatric-mental health nurses in violence prevention.
Michael J. Polacek, MSN, RN-BC, elected as a Member-at-Large, is a Professional Development Specialist with Salem Health Clinical Education's Emergency Department and Acute Psychiatric units in Oregon. His past involvement with APNA includes serving as Associate Chair of the APNA Institute for Safe Environments and on a search committee charged with recommending a new Editor-in-Chief for APNA’s peer reviewed scholarly journal, the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.
Christine Tebaldi, RN, MS, PMHNP-BC will also join the APNA Board of Directors as a Member-at-Large. Tebaldi is the Director of Clinical Business Development and the Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts.
She served as the Co-Chair for the Institute for Mental Health Advocacy from 2008 to 2016. Tebaldi also participated on a joint committee which updated the Scope and Standards of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing and the ANCC Interprofessional Disaster Certification Advisory Panel.
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is a national professional membership organization committed to the specialty practice of psychiatric-mental health nursing and wellness promotion, prevention of mental health problems and the care and treatment of persons with psychiatric disorders. APNA’s membership is inclusive of all psychiatric mental health registered nurses including associate degree, baccalaureate, advanced practice (comprised of clinical nurse specialists and psychiatric nurse practitioners), and nurse scientists and academicians (PhD). APNA serves as a resource for psychiatric mental health nurses to engage in networking, education, and the dissemination of research. The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.