It has been a month since President Trump declared a state of national emergency due to the COVID pandemic—March 13. Coincidentally, on that same day, the noted psychiatrist and writer Dinah Miller published an excellent article in Clinical Psychiatry News (https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/219014/schizophrenia-other-psychotic-disorders/coronavirus-inpatient-unit-new) entitled Coronavirus on the Inpatient Unit: A New Challenge for Psychiatry. In that article, …
Month: April 2020
DMH Expands Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Scope for COVID
On Friday, April 3, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) issued an emergency expansion of what nurse practitioners are allowed to do on psychiatric inpatient units. For the duration of the COVID related state of emergency, NPs can now: Assess whether a patient is competent to sign in voluntarily to the hospital (called a …
CDC and the Great Face Mask Dithering
This morning, my COVID news feed is filled with articles about how CDC is considering recommending that everybody wear face masks (eg., “C.D.C. Weighs Advising Everyone to Wear a Mask,” New York Times.) It’s about time. We’ve known that those countries that have required universal masking (like China, South Korea, and Singapore) have been the …