Friday, July 23, 2010
Bonham receives psychiatric-mental health nursing award
Elizabeth Bonham
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Betty Vawter Senior Editor, News & Information Services 812/480-1873 Dr. Elizabeth Bonham, assistant professor of nursing, is the recipient of the Melva Jo Hendrix Lectureship Award presented in April at the annual conference of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (ISPN). The conference was held in St. Louis. The award honors the contributions of the late Dr. Melva Jo Hendrix to psychiatric-mental health nursing. It recognizes psychiatric-mental health nurses whose careers exemplify her commitment to improving care for the underserved or stigmatized and her dedication to mentoring others. As award recipient, Bonham will be a featured presenter at the 2011 annual ISPN conference March 29-April 2 in Tucson, Arizona. Among other topics, Bonham will address the effect of the economy on the availability and need for psychiatric-mental health services. In the 1990s, Bonham partnered with Hendrix and other psychiatric nursing leaders in establishing ISPN to provide continuing development for the field of psychiatric-mental health nursing. The organization has four divisions. Bonham is Division Director for the Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurses. Bonham developed the Family Support Services Program provided by the Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force. As founding director from 1993-99, she led the program to reach out to rural communities with high rates of violence and crime and limited resources. The Family Support Services Program provides individual, family, and group therapy for juvenile offenders as well as consultation and case management. Bonham's interest in child and adolescent psychiatric-mental health nursing developed in the 1980s when she was employed as a public health nurse working with adolescent girls. She earned a master's degree in 1985 with a clinical specialty in child/adolescent psychiatric-mental health nursing at Indiana University. She completed a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing in 2005 at the University of Arizona. Bonham joined the USI College of Nursing and Health Professions in 2009. She teaches courses in the theoretical basis and healthcare issues of advanced nursing practice, mental health nursing, and nursing research as well as the planning course for the capstone project in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program. She has served previously on the nursing faculties at the University of Louisville and Marian College and as a teaching and research associate at the University of Arizona. She was the founding clinical child specialist at Hamilton Heights Elementary School in Arcadia, Indiana. Bonham is in demand as a presenter at professional meetings, and her articles are published widely in professional journals. Her article "The Role of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing in Health Care Reform" appears in the May 2010 issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing. |
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