NP Institute Invites Clarity and Confidence for New NPs

Steering Committee members Julie Carbray, PhD, FPMHNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC, APRN, and Andrew Penn, MS, PMHNP, share their hopes for attendees at the first annual NP Institute. Since many NPs leave school still hungry for more knowledge and training, organizers made NP Institute an opportunity for nurse practitioners to continue digging deep, learning, and gaining confidence in their skills. 

The conference will kick off on Friday, April 28, with an introductory session and orientation for attendees with the steering committee members followed by the first accredited session "Principles of Psychopharmacology" with Penn and Craig Chepke, MD, FAPA, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Sessions for the following 4 days will fall into 1 of 3 categories: deep dives, master classes, and short courses, examining topics such as classes and disease states for medication in psychopharmacology and practice management, including common billing errors and documentation best practices. A full agenda can be found here. 

The NP Institute will be in-person from April 28 to May 1, 2023, in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information and to register, visit the meeting page.

Julie A. Carbray, PhD, PMHNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC, APRN, is a clinical professor of psychiatry and nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr Carbray holds her PhD (93) and Master of Science (88) degrees from Rush University, Chicago, and her Bachelor of Science (87) degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Dr Carbray was recognized by the UIC community in 2008 by receiving the Karen Gousman Excellence in Nursing Award and the American Psychiatric Nurses Association’s (APNA) Best Practices in Outpatient Mental Health Nursing Award. In 2012, Dr Carbray was awarded the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Inspire award for her long-standing commitment to UIC values and her inspiration of others in her work, and in 2016, Dr Carbray was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by APNA for her service to the profession of psychiatric nursing.

Andrew Penn, MS, PMHNP, was trained as an adult nurse practitioner and psychiatric clinical nurse specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. He is board certified as an adult nurse practitioner and psychiatric nurse practitioner by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. He has completed extensive training in Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy at the California Institute for Integral Studies and has published in the American Journal of Nursing, Bipolar Disorders, and Frontiers in Psychiatry. He was a study therapist on the MAPS-sponsored Phase 3 study of MDMA assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and is currently a co-investigator on the Usona-sponsored phase 2 study of psilocybin facilitated therapy or major depression.

Currently, he serves as an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Nursing where he teaches psychopharmacology and is an Attending Nurse Practitioner at the San Francisco Veterans Administration with the joint UCSF/SFVA NP residency program. He has expertise in psychopharmacological treatment for adult patients and specializes in the treatment of affective disorders and PTSD. He has published on the risks and benefits of cannabinoids in psychiatric treatment.