Breaking down the silos to build bridges for behavioral health integration requires we understand the various roles and scopes of all members of the interprofessional team. Often missed, misunderstood, or underutilized in primary care is the nurse. Evidence from the Macy Foundation Report (2016) Registered Nurses: Partners in Transforming Primary Care indicated nurses as essential to ensuring whole-person care and sustainable health outcomes, yet many primary care organizations have failed to embrace the inclusion of the role in their team. 

In this session, we will help you answer the following questions: Why do you need a nurse in primary care behavioral health integration? How can a nurse offset the role of the provider and support the interprofessional team? What is the nurse's role, scope, and value for whole-person care? We will differentiate that “a nurse is not just a nurse” holding a variety of pivotal levels of education, experience, and scopes of practice that can impact clinic outcomes and improve behavioral health integration (i.e.: LPN, RN, NP).

We will share an overview of the outcomes from three HRSA-funded grants focused on interprofessional teams, increasing RNs in primary care, and promoting behavioral health integration in nurse-led primary health clinics in Rural Colorado. By the end, we will discuss strategies to promote real action including nurses to build the bridges to unite for whole-person health in primary care.