The 2023 AAPPN Annual Conference is designed by PHMNPs for PHMNPs.

“Solutions for Today’s Challenges in Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing”
Saturday, November 4, 2023
9:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m.
Bastyr University
14500 Juanita Dr NE, Kenmore, WA
Directions
Registration Information
Includes lunch and conference materials
Continuing Education: 7 ANCC contact hours, including 5 pharmacotherapeutic hours*
Registration
$210 for AAPPN Clinical, Emeritus, and Out-of-State Members
$140 for AAPPN Student Members
$260 for Nonmembers
Exhibitors: Discover how to connect with conference attendees through our Exhibitor Program.
Join your colleagues to explore the unique challenges and opportunities of our profession.
We’ll examine a full spectrum of treatment considerations and modalities that you can utilize to enhance treatment outcomes. Learn new research outcomes and evidence-based tools.
Topics include:
- Comorbidities of DSM disorders, SUD, and chronic pain
- Case studies of PMHNP practice in a corrections setting
- Advanced topics in perinatal psychiatry
- Neurodiversity and its impact on clinical practice
- “Extra credit” CEs for readings and videos at no extra charge
We are proud to feature a speaker lineup composed solely of PMHNPs:
- Yoriko Kozuki, PhD, PMHNP-BC, ARNP
- Tricia Spach, MSN, ARNP
- Dana Dean Doering, ARNP
There will be plenty of time for connecting with friends old and new. You’ll also meet our 2023 award recipients and have time to visit our exhibitors. Not to mention enjoying a fantastic lunch as only Bastyr University can provide.
The conference will also be professionally recorded, so if you aren’t able to attend in-person (and even if you do attend), you can access the video for up to three years.
Conference Presentations
Comorbidities of DSM Disorders, Substance Use Disorder (SUD), and Chronic Pain (CP)
Yoriko Kozuki, PhD, PMHNP-BC, ARNP
In the general population, about 20% of individuals are living with chronic pain diagnoses.
We’ll explore the associations between SUD—especially OUD and CP (up to 20%)—and also between SUD and DSM disorders (up to 64%). These comorbidities occur in high prevalences, especially among vulnerable populations and in rural and other medically underserved areas.
It is essential for PMHNPs to be capable of evaluating and intervening in this clinically very common phenomenon based on evidence-based pharmacology and non-pharmacological options.
Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Recognize the underlying biopsychosocial mechanism and the prevalence of comorbidities of CP, DSM disorders, and SUD.
- Analyze the evidence-based pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for comorbidities of CP, DSM disorders, and SUD.
- Discuss the role of PMHNPs in evaluating, intervening in, and collaborating with other healthcare professionals to treat the comorbidities of CP, DSM disorders, and SUD.
Case Study: PMHNP practice in a correctional setting
Yoriko Kozuki, PhD, PMHNP-BC, ARNP
Practicing in correctional settings poses unique challenges for PMHNPs.
In this session, we’ll examine case studies from Dr. Kozuki’s practice as an PMHNP at Monroe Correctional Complex’s Minimal Security Unit to illuminate the special considerations for PMHNP practice.
We’ll detail the PMHNP scope of practice with this population. We’ll also discuss the parameters of practicing under Monroe’s contract with the University of Washington, which allows UW’s School of Nursing faculty to maintain clinical practice.
Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Describe the unique considerations for PMHNP practice in a correctional setting.
- Describe the PMHNP role in advocating for incarcerated clients and educating correctional administrators, judges, caseworkers, and correctional staff.
About the speaker

Yoriko Kozuki, PhD, PMHNP-BC, ARNP
Associate Professor at University of Washington’s School of Nursing
She completed her PMHNP training by obtaining an MS degree from Columbia University in New York and a PhD in Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco.
Advanced topics in perinatal psychiatry
Tricia Spach, MSN, ARNP
In this in-depth session, we will examine preconception planning for patients with existing psychiatric disorders and present cases highlighting clinical challenges prescribers face.
We’ll utilize case studies to discuss advanced topics in perinatal psychiatry. We’ll explore the consideration of options for treating patients with severe or treatment resistant psychiatric illness, complex medical conditions, and patients who have been hospitalized. We’ll also discuss novel treatments for postpartum depression, including the recent FDA-approved Zuranolone.
Woven throughout the session will be clinical cases for discussion. Each case will have a brief talk about the parent-child dyad and highlight how you can keep them in mind as you support new parents with psychiatric illness in the perinatal period.
The session will also include a brief review of the clinical presentations of perinatal psychiatric illnesses and some unique features, including:
- Perinatal psychiatric illness impact on the fetus, the newborn, and the parent-child relationship.
- Long-term consequences of untreated perinatal psychiatric illness on the child and mother/parent as well as their relationship.
- Prescribing psychotropic medications to patients in the perinatal period.
- Analyzing and documenting the decision to treat with medication vs. non-medication treatments.
Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Recognize how to weigh the risks and benefits of mental health treatment in each trimester of pregnancy, pre-pregnancy, and postpartum with consent.
- Outline the highlights of risks for classes of psychiatric medications.
- Develop strategies for transition of existing psychiatric medications with new or planned pregnancy.
- Evaluate and distinguish when patients need to be urgently referred to higher levels of care.
About the speaker

Tricia Spach, MSN, ARNP
Perinatal Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
She received her MSN at the UW School of Nursing. She has worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings and currently has an active clinical practice in the Seattle area.
Tricia is trained in infant mental health, and she works to support mothers and their babies during pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. She also provides medication management for individuals with general psychiatric disorders.
Neurodiversity and its impact on clinical practice
Dana Dean Doering, ARNP
Everyone is using the term neurodiversity—but not always understanding what they mean by it. In this session, we’ll take a deep dive to better understand the causes, symptoms, interactions with other conditions, and treatments.
Neurodiversity is not one solo process, but a defining aspect of ADHD, OCD, NLVD, LD, Sensory Integration, and Executive Function Disorders. It also covers the waterfront from Bipolar to Autistic Spectrum Disorders in the DSM vernacular.
We’ll explore how to:
- Adjust the clinical mindset in assessment.
- Define neurodiversity in ADHD and other DSM categories.
- Support the child, adolescent, and adult with learning disabilities and differences.
- Understand why the brain works so differently in Autism and ASD Spectrum Disorders.
- Define neurodiverse needs in psychiatric issues management for Anxiety, OCD, ODD, Depression, and Bipolar.
- Adjust the clinical mindset in treatment and advice to parents and families.
Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Identify the rise in neurodiversity.
- Define processing speed and working memory deficits and explain how these impact treatment participation and outcomes.
- List current theories and understanding of potential rise in executive functioning deficits in young people.
- Describe potential treatment recommendations and adaptations to better support students and clients presenting with these deficits.
- Utilize treatment recommendations to better support clients with these challenges.
About the speaker

Dana Dean Doering, ARNP
Nationally Board-certified child and adolescent psychiatric mental health specialist
Dana’s background is Developmental Pediatrics, and she practices from both a developmental and normative perspective with children, adolescents, young adults, and their families. She is actively involved in assessing, developing, and enhancing the individual best interests and emotional needs of a child, adolescent, and young adult. She also focuses on the needs and best interests of that child’s immediate and extended family system.
Dana completed undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas, and graduate studies at the University of Washington.
Contact hours
This activity has been submitted to Oregon Nurses Association for approval to award contact hours. Oregon Nurses Association is accredited as an approver of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Upon approval, attendees may earn 7.0 contact hours, of which 5.0 can be applied toward the pharmacotherapeutic continuing education requirement for advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority. Participants must be present for or view all the educational activity to receive contact hours.
Conference recording
A recording of the conference will be available for rental. All CEs are available by viewing the recording. The registration fee is the same as attending the in-person conference.
Refund policy
Balance minus $50 processing fee refundable until October 20, 2023. Registrants for the live conference who are unable to attend may access the recorded conference.
Volunteer organizers
Our thanks to our Education Committee volunteers who coordinated this event:
- Cindy Bello-Utu, PMHNP
- Heather Buzbee, MSN, CPNP-PC, PMHNP-BC
- Eleanor Lee, PhD, ARNP
- Mary Ellen O’Keefe, MN, MBA, PNHCNS-BC, ARNP
- Steven Pline, DNP, ARNP, PMHNP-BC
- Jinn Schladweiler, MN, OEHN, PMHNP, ARNP
- Sharon Wallace, PhD, MSN, PMHNP-BC, ARNP
- Diana Wilcox, PMHNP-BC, MBA-HM, LL.B
Video production by Magnus Media Group Video Production