Healing the mind-body and nursing specialty splits. Conference regarding the "Blended" role in psychiatric/mental health nursing. June 5, 1998--University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

When the idea for this conference was born last year, our primary concern was for the graduates of our "blended" clinical specialist/nurse practitioner (CS/NP) program and the availability of a national examination credentialing them for this new advanced practice role. As we launched our new program and answered students' questions about credentialing, we were keenly aware of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) position of waiting for at least 100 graduates nationally from programs like ours before developing an examination for "blended" role graduates. The purpose of this article is to share the outcomes of this conference and to inspire national collegial conversation about the serious issues we face as a specialty group in advanced practice nursing.