2000-22: PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses: Activating Our Voices as We Evolve in Our Profession

It’s time to activate your nursing voice! As the second largest segment of the psychiatric-mental health workforce, nurses have the power to raise awareness and advance mental health care in our work settings, in our local communities, and nationally. In this presentation, learn how to articulate your unique nursing role to colleagues, communities, and stakeholders. Then, explore how to advocate for the support you and your PMH nursing colleagues need from supervisors, systems, policymakers, and more.

Presenter:  Leslie G. Oleck, MSN, PMHNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC, LMFT, FAAN

Disclosures:  The APNA planners and faculty have no relevant financial relationships to disclose. Off-label uses will not be discussed during this presentation.

Session Length:  40 minutes

Target Audience:  RN, APRN

Learning Outcome:
Upon completion of this presentation, the participant will be able to:

• Communicate 3 essential things that describe what you do as a psychiatric-mental health nurse in practice, education, administration or research.

Keywords: Advocacy, Self-care, Policy, Practice

Nursing Continuing Professional Development:
0.75 contact hours.  * In order to receive contact hours, you must: Listen to presentation, complete an evaluation, and earn a passing score on the post-test before the expiration date. You will have 5 tries to correctly answer the questions on the post-test and a score of 80% is required to pass. Once you have passed and completed an evaluation, the certificate will be generated online, available for you to print immediately. You cannot earn credit unless all steps are completed.

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Originally Presented
APNA 36th Annual Conference
Long Beach, CA

The contact hours for this session expire:  November 30, 2025