6th Annual ISPN Conference

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Apr-Jun 2004 by Poster, Elizabeth

Linda Finke, PhD, RN, received the The Melva Jo Hendrix Lectureship Award honoring the memory of its namesake. This award celebrates both Dr Hendrix's and Dr Finke's leadership and recognizes their lifetime of contributions to psychiatric-mental health nursing-particularly their unswerving commitment to improving care for the underserved, stigmatized, or disenfranchised, and their dedication to mentoring others.

Elizabeth Poster, PhD, RN, FAAN, received the ACAPN Division Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in child/adolescent psychiatric nursing in clinical practice, service, research, or education. She has served as the Editor of ACAPN's official journal, Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, for the past 13 years.

Mark Soucy, PhD, APRN, BC, received the ISPN Practice Award for his leadership and contributions to ISPN and the profession. Mark is a longtime member of ACAPN.

Continuing on the momentum built in previous years, this year's ISPN conference provided an outstanding program for clinicians, researchers, and educators. All who were in attendance benefited from colleagues' presentations of clinical practice innovations and their study findings with important implications for further research and practice. Two innovative approaches, Judy Coucouvanis's model of working with children with Asperger's disorder and Susan McCabe's work using photography to help patients express themselves, are examples from the frontiers of new knowledge. It was clear others also need to learn about the work of psychiatric nurses and that while conferences are important, publications are also a vital way to inform colleagues and the public.

I urge the presenters as well as others to share their work in not only the professional psychiatric nursing and multidisciplinary journals but also in local newspapers, magazines, and other publications. These media are always searching for new material, and mental health is a key area of concern and interest to the public. Having now written a monthly column on health for the Fort Worth Business Press, I would be happy to share my experiences to help others. Please feel free to write me about your interest and ideas.

Elizabeth Poster, PhD, RN, FAAN, Editor

poster@uta.edu