Leadership for Creating an Interdisciplinary Mental Health Simulation Education Program

Saturday, 16 November 2013

Michelle A. Gehring, DHA, MSN
School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to describe 2 ways in which multidisciplinary educational programs impact student nurses’ perceptions of mental illness.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to describe how implementation of this project impacted the author, as related to the three leadership domains of NFLA.

Collaboration between a multidisciplinary grassroots mental health coalition and a nursing faculty member has led to a thriving academic-community partnership. Outcomes of this relationship include simulation and education activities grown across organizational, classroom, and online environments. Evaluation indicated nearly unanimous agreement that students experienced an improved understanding of mental illness and more effective clinical application of real-life panels and case scenarios. The simulation project served as a foundation for development of the three NFLA leadership domains: 1) Individual Leadership Development; 2) Nursing Education Advancement through the Team Project; and 3) Organizational Scope of Influence, as they enhanced the quality of students’ education in psychiatric/mental health nursing in an urban university. Highlights of leadership development include application of Plato’s Acorn Model and self-realization of one’s own servant leadership strengths in the clinical teaching realm and patient care sector.