American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel Consensus Statement on leveraging equity in policy to improve recognition and treatment of mental health, substance use disorders, and nurse suicide

Rates of nurse mental health and substance use disorders are high. Heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses are challenged to care for patients in ways that often jeopardize their own health and increase risks for their families. These trends exac-erbate the epidemic of suicide in nursing underscored by several professional organi-zation clarion calls to nurses' risk. Principles of health equity and trauma-informed care dictate urgent action. The purpose of this paper is to establish consensus among clinical and policy leaders from Expert Panels of the American Academy of Nursing about actions to address risks to mental health and factors contributing to nurse sui-cide. Recommendations for mitigating barriers drew from the CDC's 2022 Suicide Pre-vention Resource for Action strategies to guide the nursing community to inform policy, education, research, and clinical practice with the goals of greater health promotion, risk reduction, and sustainment of nurses' health and well-being are provided. Cite this article: Schimmels, J., Groh, C., Neft, M., Wocial, L., Young, C., & Davidson, J.E. (2023, May/June). American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel Consensus Statement on leveraging equity in policy to improve recognition and treatment of mental health, substance use disorders, and nurse suicide. Nurs Outlook, 71(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2023.101970.

Automated summary

Rates of nurse mental health and substance use disorders are high, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses face challenges in caring for patients that put their own health at risk and impact their families. Urgent action is needed to address the mental health risks and factors contributing to nurse suicide.