Jeff Anderson, DNP, MS, PMHNP-BC, began his role as Regional Clinical Faculty (RCF) in the PMHNP program at FNU in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 Pandemic became widespread throughout the United States. Just like the other RCFs and students, Anderson had to adjust quickly to a new way of work.
As clinics began to shut down or reduce on-site personnel due to the pandemic, many students were faced with the prospect of losing their clinical sites.
“There have been several instances where either the preceptor or the clinic stopped taking students as the COVID numbers went up,” said Anderson, who resides in Idaho and works with students primarily in the northwestern part of the country. “In those cases, we had to suspend the preceptor relationship because the student was no longer allowed in the clinic. We have had students who, because a clinical site shut down, had to go on academic hiatus.”
Anderson himself faced hurdles connecting with preceptors. Instead of meeting with preceptors face to face, as is the norm, the meetings have largely been held via video.
“In the time I’ve been with Frontier, I’ve only traveled once to meet with a preceptor face to face,” Anderson said. “It’s kind of the way business is done now.”
Not only has video conferencing enabled Anderson to meet with preceptors, but it has also enabled many of his psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) students to continue to progress at their clinical sites. Anderson said that most of the roughly 30 students he has had over the past few terms have transitioned to at least some level of telehealth with their preceptors.
“For the students who have found a good situation with a preceptor, it has really been convenient for them to do telehealth from their own home,” he said. “We have had students do clinicals in which they stay at home and they log in to a Zoom type meeting with the patient and the preceptor. We have also have the situation where the preceptor is still going to their office and the student meets them in their office, so the student and preceptor are both in the office but the patient joins via telehealth.”
Though there are some drawbacks such as not being able to see a patient’s body language, Anderson said that telehealth provides a viable option, particularly for PMHNP students.
“Mental health is unique compared to the other specialties at Frontier because mental health treatment really lends itself to telehealth,” he said. “I don’t see a big drop in the quality with telehealth versus face to face. In my own practice, when I see patients, it’s 100 percent telehealth now. Because of the jumpstart provided by COVID, telehealth is going to be significantly more prevalent in the future. It is a very important part of the students’ education to participate in and understand telehealth because it may be a big piece of their practices going forward.”
Anderson said that even post-pandemic, telehealth might prove to be the preferred option for many patients who otherwise might have difficulty attending an appointment. In mental health care, virtual visits have not often been an option as insurance companies have been resistant to pay for telehealth.
“It is hard to say there’s anything positive coming from the pandemic, but if there was it would be that insurance companies that have in the past have been somewhat reluctant to pay for telehealth now will have a year’s worth of data showing that it is just as effective,” Anderson said. “In some ways, I think telehealth might be more effective because the no-show rates go down. Mental health patients can telehealth right from their home where they are more comfortable.”
Most of the PMHNP students who have been able to have face-to-face visits with patients have done so where the patients are admitted and living on-site. Other students have found telehealth to be a tool to acquire clinical hours with preceptors in other states.
“Telehealth actually opened some doors for precepting in that a lot of states are compact states where an RN license from one state is valid in the other state,” Anderson said. “What that allows is that, if we have a student in Colorado who can’t find any sites in their state, they can reach out to any other compact state and look for a provider that’s doing telehealth and willing to take on a student. They’re really not limited to their state anymore. I’ve actually had some students who have obtained an RN license in a non-compact state because they had a willing telehealth preceptor in that state.”
While an end to the pandemic will surely result in a significant return to in-person healthcare, Anderson said that the past year has shown that telehealth is here to stay.
“This is a real-world experience,” he said of the widespread adjustment to and implementation of telehealth. “Telehealth is definitely an important aspect of the psychiatric mental health NP student’s education at this point and moving forward.”
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).