April 21.2008 The Ncws Argus
Featores
Legislation require universities to alert
students of threat within 30 minutes
Kristen M. Daum
MCT WIRE SERVICE
WASHINGTON
Just days before the one-
year anniversary of the
Virginia Tech University
shootings. Rep. Carolyn
McCarthy, D-N.Y., intro
duced a bill that would
require universities to alert
students of a threat no
more than 30 minutes after
it's been confirmed,
"Many believe if the stu
dents had been notified
earlier, they might not
have gone to class,"
McCarthy said Wednesday.
The law currently
requires universities to
notify students in a "timely
manner." But McCarthy
said that standard is too
subjective and could cost
lives, like at Virginia Tech
— when the university
waited nearly two hours
last April 16 to e-mail stu
dents that a gunman had
been on campus. Thirty-
two people were killed.
McCarthy's proposal also
requires that universities
annually publish and test
emergency response proce
dures.
Colleges would have
until 2009 to set up campus
wide alert systems using
whatever method they
chose — such as auto
mated cell phone calls or
text messages — but the
proposal doesn't yet
include funds for institu
tions to do so.
Gun violence hits home
for McCarthy, whose son
was injured and husband
was killed by a gunman
while riding a Long Island
Rail Road train in New
York in 1993. The tragedy
was the platform that pro
pelled her to a seat in
Congress.
On New York's Long
Island, Stony Brook
University used its own
emergency system in late
February — when a cafete
ria worker falsely reported
a man with a gun.
The university alerted
students 26 minutes after
getting the report, a rea
sonable amount of time to
respond to such a threat —
but which might not be
feasible at other times, said
Robert Lenahan, university
emergency management
director.
"There may be some cir
cumstances where you
may need to take a little
more time to verify the
accuracy," Lenahan said.
That's why the American
Council on Education
opposes the "one-size-fits-
all mandate," said Terry W.
Hartle, the council's senior
vice president for govern
ment and public affairs.
"Campus security offi
cers want to convey infor
mation as timely, accurate
and useful," Hartle said.
"If you choose one of those
three over the others, you
may not be providing the
best information people
need."
But alerts within 30 min
utes could save lives, said
Joe Samaha, father of
Virginia Tech victim
Reema Samaha. "If we do
not leam the lesson, we
will have lost our students
for nothing," he said.
Photo by Garrett Garms |
Extra security measures have been taken due to
recent emergencies on university campuses.
North Carolina trains nurses to serve missing psychiatric needs
Jean P. Fisher
MCT WIRE SERVICE
RALEIGH
The School of Nursing at the
University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill is increasing the scarce
supply of mental health providers
by retraining nurses to diagnose
and treat psychiatric illness.
What's more, the program
recruits at least half its students
from North Carolina counties with
the highest need, which often
results in new providers returning
to practice where they are most
needed.
The school is one of a handful of
universities nationally that trains
registered nurses to be psychiatric
nurse practitioners. Here, and
across the country, such profession
als are emerging as critical players
in efforts to address a growing
shortage of psychiatrists.
Seventeen of North Carolina's 100
counties have no psychiatrist, and
27 others have significant short
ages, according to the Cecil G.
Sheps Center for Health Services
Research at the Chapel Hill cam
pus.
That means many patients with
mental illness, particularly those in
rural parts of the state, go undiag
nosed or untreated. Some seek help
from primary-care doctors who
typically lack the specialized train
ing to provide optimal care. In the
worst situations, untreated patients
wander the streets, land in hospital
emergency rooms or end up in jail.
"You have terrible access across
the state," said Dr. Marvin Swartz,
chief of the division of social and
community psychiatry at Duke
University Medical Center in
Durham, N.C. Duke is also trying
to address the shortage, by framing
physician assistants in a one-year
fellowship program that provides
advanced training in psychiatric
care. Upon completion, physician
assistants will be able to function as
primary mental health care
providers. "It's a very challenging
situation."
Swartz and others say mental
health reforms adopted by the state
in 2001 only exacerbated problems
by closing down county-run psy
chiatric programs. In theory, private
providers were to step in to care for
patients. Most counties are still
waiting for that to happen. Others
have overpaid for services that ben
efit easy-to-treat people, leaving
profoundly sick patients with little
care.
UNC-CH's psychiatric nurse
practitioner program helps by pro
ducing highly skilled clinicians
who can assess and diagnose psy
chiatric illness and treat it with
both psychotherapy and medica
tion. In North Carolina, psychiatric
nurse practitioners are the only
nonphysician mental health
providers who can prescribe pow
erful anti-psychotic drugs. State
law does require them to work in
collaboration with a physician,
though the doctor need not be on
site.
Abree Ryans of Jacksonville grad
uated from UNC-CH's program in
December to find employers clam
oring for her expertise.
"For the first time in my nursing
career, I have not had to look for a
job — people are calling me," said
Ryans. "I have turned down at least
10 job offers."
Ryans, a former psychiatric
nurse, has accepted a part-time
position at a private mental health
services practice in Jacksonville,
which is an underserved area. She
will perform psychological assess
ments and manage patients' med
ications. She is considering a sec
ond position with a provider in
Wilmington.
"I'm excited and raring to go,"
said Ryans, who loved her work as
a nurse but felt too limited in what
she could do for her patients.
"Now I am going to be able to help
people so much more."
UNC-CH has had a psychiatric
nurse practitioner program since
2002. But enrollment didn't take off
until the next year, when the School
of Nursing received state and fed
eral grants to target nurses already
living and working in underserved
areas across North Carolina. The
program also seeks to enroll nurses
who are racial minorittes or who
come from poor backgrounds.
Students entering the program
may have a two-year or four-year
nursing degree, or they may
already have a master's degree in
nursing. Depending on the level of
training coming in, it takes one to
three years to complete the psychi
atric nurse practitioner degree.
Nurses recruited through the
grant-funded program, called
Nurses Enhancing Mental Health
Options for the Underserved in
North Carolina, receive resources
such as a free laptop computer.
Tuition assistance is also available
in exchange for a commitment to
work in an underserved area upon
graduation.
To make attending school as easy
as possible, the university modeled
the psychiatric nurse practitioner
Photos courtesy of Media Relations
ABOVE: Nursing will no longer be limited to standard tasks but will
expand to include psychiatric diagnoses of patients.
BELOW: WSSU nursing graduates will be more competitive when
looking for jobs if they receive patient psychiatric training.
program after executive degree
programs that require only weekly
or monthly visits to campus. It also
incorporated courses taught via
teleconference. That has enabled
nurses from remote parts of the
state to work toward degrees while
continuing to work in their home
communities.
"I probably wouldn't be able to
do this without distance learning,"
said Kim Bronson of Garland, N.C.,
a small town in Sampson County
about a two-hour drive from
Chapel Hill.
Bronson, a single mother, works
full time as a substance-abuse nurse
while also attending the school's
psychiatric nurse practitioner pro
gram. She hopes to stay in
Sampson County after she com
pletes her training. Her dream is to
open a substance abuse treatment
center there or in nearby Robeson
County. Both counties have a des
perate need, she said.
"A lot of people don't know
where to go or what to do to access
services," Bronson said. "The emer
gency departments are inundated
with psychiatric patients."
Since 2003, enrollment in the
Chapel Hill campus program has
grown from two students to more
than 50. Fewer than six have com
pleted their psychiatric nurse prac-
Education
central to
the black
church
Jerrod Johnson
STAFF REPORTER
titloner degrees to date, but at least
14 more are expected to graduate
this summer
"We started slow, and we started
small, so the numbers are not that
impressive," said Linda Beeber, a
professor of nursing at the school
and founder of the psychiatric
nurse practitioner program. "But
give us a couple of years. It's cer
tainly not the answer to the whole
problem, but it's one proactive
thing that nursing can offer."
As the Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton
stood in K.R. Williams
Auditorium in front of a crowd of
about 300 students, alumni and
visitors, there was one thing on
his mind.
"I want to celebrate the mar
velous legacy of the black
church," he said. "The media cov
erage has created a considerable
degree of misunderstanding."
Rev. Braxton was referring to
the 2008 presidential nomination
campaign and the media target
ing of black churches due to com
ments made by Senator Barack
Obama's former pastor. Rev.
Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United
Church of Christ in Chicago.
An associate professor of
Homiletics and New Testament at
Vanderbilt University Divinity
School in Nashville, Braxton
taught at Wake Forest University
Divinity School in Winston-
Salem. He holds a bachelor's
degree in religious studies from
the University of Virginia, a mas
ter of philosophy degree in New
Testament Studies from the
University of Oxford where he
was a Rhodes Scholar, and a
Ph.D. in New Testament studies
from Emory University.
After a short prayer, Braxton
enumerated the contributions the
black church has made in the
United States, including the prac
tices of social protest and preach
ing, as well as the musical gifts of
spirituals and gospel music. It
was in the black church, he said,
that worship became a true exam
ple of exultation and ecstasy.
"The black church has always
been a fervent source of hope,"
Braxton said.
"Education is central to the
black church," he said.
As a community, the church
must be inclusive to those who
are different, and not exclusive,
he said.
"We must break down the
walls of separation in churches,"
Braxton said. "We must break
down the walls of separation
between people of different racial
identities, different sexual identi
ties, red and blue states and
between the "do-bop" and "hip-
hop" generations."
Later on, he discussed the
viewpoint held by many skeptics
that the black church, for being so
"Heavenly-minded," does no
good in life. Braxton then
defended his own position using
the scientific theory of quantum
energy.
"For every dimension of evil,
there is a greater dimension of
divine wisdom. The church's task
is to mediate that wisdom on
higher levels," he said.
Above everything else, Braxton
called upon the church to do
more, by operating on a higher
level of existence.
"Church is about more than the
sweetest hoop, the largest budget
or the biggest building," he
extolled. "Church is about more
than passing the plate, Saturday
specials and Sunday socials.
Church is about more than drip
ping water on a baby's forehead
and submerging people in water
for baptism. Church is about
more than wafers and wine on
Communion and satisfying the
deacons. Church is about more
than holding hands of the dying
and feeding the hungry."
"When we do church right,"
Braxton said, "it is an example of
God on a higher level."
♦