I''VE MOVED THE BLOG!! AS OF DECEMBER 24, 2010

Please visit me at askapsychnurse.wordpress.com!!

Peace!
Sylvia

HUMOR HELPS!
Post your nursing jokes, funny stories from your practice area or comics--We gotta keep laughing at ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in--YOU know what I'm talkin' 'bout!

NEW PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS

What's UP with INVEGA (paliperidone)? Have you used it (administered, prescribed, or watched it work)? What's your preliminary verdict?

NURSE INNOVATORS FORUM

Have you discovered a new way to do an 'old thing'? Tell us about it here!

DAY-TO-DAY PRACTICE

PILLBOXES: FILLING THEM IN YOUR OUTPATIENT CLINIC
I work in an outpatient psychiatric setting and some of our patients/clients are severely and persistently mentally-ill. I'm talking about chronic schizophrenia, coupled sometimes with cognitive disabilities. We (RNs) are asked to assist these (and other) patients with pillbox/pill envelope filling in order to assist or encourage medication compliance.
I'd like to hear from those of you that also have to do this: your tried and true methods, best practices, etc.

About Me

Sylvia B. Ratliff-Trappio, MS, RN is the Owner/Founder of GIATI CONSULTING and AskAPsychNurse.net (AAPN.net). She has been an RN for over thirty years. Her experience has run the gamut from staff nurse and charge nurse in Critical Care and in Psychiatry and Substance Abuse to Behavioral Case Management and Telephonic Psychiatric/SA Referrals to Head Nurse in Psychiatry to Nurse Manager in a Psychiatric Outpatient setting. Since 2009, she has been a Surveyor of public and privately run mental health clinics, authorized by the DC Department of Mental Health. She was in management for nine years and likes it enough (even with its inherent headaches) to pursue it academically.

Sylvia is an alumna of Howard University College of Nursing (now known as the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Howard University). She has a Master's degree in Nursing Administration with a Teaching in the Health Professions Certificate, a 2010 alumna of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Nursing (UMB/SON). She returned to school at age forty-eight, after a twenty-seven year absence! She was inducted into the Pi Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Nursing Honor Society in May 2010. This is a dream-deferred for 31 years!!

Sylvia is also a motivational speaker, prioritization and health education consultant. She has entrepreneurial aspirations, as well.  "I enjoy passing on my knowledge and wisdom to others and I get a charge out of seeing peoples' faces light up when they 'get' it!"

Her current philosophies are: Use your MANNERS, Live the GOLDEN RULE, Pursue your DREAMS, De-clutter your LIFE and Don't Fight It...USE It!

Sylvia is married and lives with her husband and son.         
Text Copyright 2010 Sylvia Ratliff-Trappio/AskaPsychNurse.net