Overview
NURS 527: NP Mental Health is part of the Master of Nursing: Nurse Practitioner (MN-NP) degree and the Post-Masters Diploma: Nurse Practitioner (PMD-NP) program.
In NURS 527, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of mental health promotion, assessment, diagnosis, and management of common mental health conditions encountered in nurse practitioner practice. Emphasis is placed on evidence-informed approaches to care for adults, including both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions.
Outline
NURS 527 is a paced course delivered over 13 weeks using a blended learning approach that combines asynchronous online learning and regular synchronous virtual sessions.
Course content focuses on the development of competencies required for the assessment and management of mental health conditions. Emphasis is placed on the following:
- Foundations of mental health and mental illness, including health promotion and prevention
- Comprehensive mental health assessment and diagnostic approaches
- Pharmacologic management of common mental health conditions
- Therapeutic communication, counselling approaches, and psychotherapeutic interventions
- Substance use health, including screening, assessment, and management
Learning outcomes
Building on knowledge of neurodevelopment, physiology, pharmacology, and the Nurse Practitioner approach to care of the adult, NURS 527 is designed to help students achieve the following goals:
- Apply current, credible and reliable research, literature and standards to inform decision-making in mental health environments;
- Utilize diagnostic and screening tools to assess for and evaluate mental health/illness;
- Identify individual and group risks for mental illness;
- Identify mental health emergencies and respond appropriately;
- Prescribe and counsel clients on psycho-therapeutics/pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions across the lifespan;
- Describe the most common evidence-based psychotherapies used for mental health conditions;
- Evaluate effectiveness of the management plan to identify required modifications and/or terminations of treatment in mental health conditions;
- Describe a therapeutic counselling relationship that is conducive to optimal health outcomes;
- Provide counselling interventions as indicated by the management plan;
- Identify ethical and legal issues related to mental health care in NP practice.
Materials
There are no required textbooks for this course. Links to learning materials will be made available in the course.
Recommended (not provided)
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.; DSM-5-TR). Washington, DC: Author.