Psychiatric Nurse Director presents at APNA Annual Conference

At the American Psychiatric Nurses Association’s (APNA) 32^nd Annual Conference held recently in Columbus, Ohio, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s Psychiatric Nurse Director Paula Knotts, MSN, RN, NE-BC, RN-BC, presented her team’s poster project titled “Access to Personal Electronic Devices on an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit: A Recovery Oriented Approach.”

The goal was to allow psychiatric inpatients regular access to their personal electronic devices to access the internet and other device capabilities within a structured group setting in order to enhance recovery.

“We learned that patients who have access to their personal electronic devices find texting and access to social media to be very important for recovery,” says Knotts of the group’s findings.

The multidisciplinary performance improvement project was completed with work from Knotts, as well as Leslie Tiffany, BSN, RN, Mary Owen, BA, Chris Richard, BSN, RN, Greg McCain, MSN, RN, Kerry Parsons, BSN, RN, Rickie Rampersand, MHW, Olu Ajayi, MBA, MHW, and Christopher AhnAllen, PhD.

“I was thrilled to be able to represent my team at the APNA Annual Conference. The experience was very gratifying because so many inpatient psychiatric units struggle with this issue. We gave away about 200 copies of the poster and there were countless people taking photos of it. I was very proud to put the 2 South team on the national map,” she says.