Editor’s Note: Dr. Jess Calohan, DNP, is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of FNU’s Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program. A recent retiree from the United States Army after 20 years of distinguished service, he is a recognized expert in treating combat-related PTSD, presenting nationally and internationally with multiple peer-reviewed publications. He was awarded the prestigious “A” designator by the United States Army Surgeon General in 2013, an honor that is given to less than 5% of Army medical officers in recognition of his expertise and significant contributions to military medicine. He also earned multiple military awards, most notably the Bronze Star and Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
How has the pandemic impacted mental health in America?
The pandemic has actually created a mental health crisis in America. One national behavioral health crisis service has seen an 800% increase in calls and internet inquiries over the past four months. This has truly been a national disaster in which there is really no relief at this point. In my professional practice, I’ve hospitalized more patients in the past nine months than I have in the last four years. People are stressed and those with mental health conditions are vulnerable to symptom exacerbation due to the increased stress. Then we have the family and friends of the more than 300,000 individuals that have died due to COVID struggling with grief as many of them didn’t get to say goodbye to their loved ones. This is an unprecedented time for the mental health of our country and the impact may well last a generation.
How have mental health professionals and their patients adapted to conducting visits during the pandemic?
Mental health care was initially seen as routine care during the beginning of the pandemic with the exception of emergency services. Many patients had appointments canceled due to quarantining and social distancing requirements. Many insurance payers along with Medicaid and Medicare did not reimburse for telephone and other types of virtual visits so care was delayed until late March when Congress passed legislation allowing reimbursement for telephone visits with patients. Other payers began to follow suit and care resumed for many patients. Psychiatry, in general, has been a pioneer in telehealth, however, it was not widely used in many practices. Providers had to quickly learn the nuances of providing telehealth services and incorporate those into clinical practice. At FNU we provide telehealth training and allow our students to use telehealth modalities in their clinical practicums.
Do you think anything that has changed in mental health care during the pandemic will persist after the pandemic is over?
Yes, telehealth utilization prior to the pandemic with our student population was about 10%. That number increased to 70% during the pandemic. I believe telehealth utilization for behavioral health services will likely fall somewhere in between. The bottom line is that it will become part of a behavioral health provider’s daily practice.
What challenges have FNU students faced during the pandemic? Have they had difficulty finding preceptors?
Our students have faced multiple challenges related to the pandemic. The two most common things we have seen are increased workload for students in their jobs and adjusting work/life/school balance. From a clinical perspective, we’ve been able to adjust and have increased the number of telehealth hours so that they can stay engaged in clinical. Our department has not had a significant impact on clinical placements.
What do prospective PMHNP preceptors need to know about precepting FNU students? What is required of them and how do they make themselves available to precept?
Even though our program is relatively new, we are becoming one of the top education PMHNP programs in the country. We are much different than other distance programs in that we require students to have face to face time with faculty. When the pandemic is contained, our students will resume two on-campus requirements that prepare them for the didactic and clinical portions of the program. We currently have successfully adapted these requirements to the virtual environment, but are looking forward to returning to our new campus. We are not a “death by discussion board” program. Part of what makes FNU unique is our ability to develop a sense of community in the virtual environment and our faculty engage students through a variety of technological platforms. Our faculty have diverse backgrounds and clinical experience. All of our faculty still practice including me. We are one of the few programs in the country that have a telehealth simulation clinic so that students can have faculty-supervised simulated patient experiences before moving on to their clinical practicums.
We have dedicated clinical faculty that support preceptors and students during the clinical rotation. The clinical faculty support reduces the administrative burden on preceptors and we offer honorariums for preceptors that precept our students.
Please describe the current and future level of need for mental health practitioners in the U.S.
We have a nationwide shortage of behavioral health providers and 3% of behavioral health providers are providers of color. FNU has a long history of graduating providers to serve in their communities. We also have made a tangible commitment to increasing the diversity of our student population and graduates.
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).