Mary E. O’Keefe
UTMB School of Nursing, USA
Title: Providing Care to Wards of Texas Probate Courts
Biography
Biography: Mary E. O’Keefe
Abstract
The State of Texas has over 54,000 legally incapacitated individuals, designated as Wards of the Court. Wards lack the physical and/or mental ability to provide shelter, financial management or physical care and therefore placed under Guardianship. This presentation discusses the Interprofessional partnership involving undergraduate nursing students in four programs across the State of Texas who served as Court Visitors to Texas Probate Courts. Students assessed the Wards providing independent evaluation of their health status. This groundbreaking Interprofessional entry into the legal system provided students with clinical experiences in non-traditional venues while serving as a springboard for the other seminal clinical programs including Interprofessional Pediatric Advocacy Model and Drug Court Clinical Model. Mentoring among and between professionals in nursing education and the legal system will be presented for the following campuses. (A) UTMB-School of Nursing (SON) and Galveston Court: (1) the Court Visitor Program Model (CVP); (2) Mentoring of Court, Faculty & Students in Model implementation; and, (3) Mentoring in development of unique related clinical programs. (B) UTMB-SON and CPS: (1) the Interprofessional Pediatric Advocacy Model; (2) Mentoring of Court, Faculty, and Students in Model implementation. (C) Blinn College Associate Degree Nursing Program: (1) Mentoring of Court, Faculty and Students in Model Implementation, and, (2) Drug Court Clinical Model. (D) UTArlington-SON and Tarrant Court: Court, Faculty and Student mentoring process in the development of the CVP. (E) UTAustin-SON and Travis Court: Court, Faculty and Student mentoring process in the development of the CVP for a RN-BSN Public Health Nursing practicum course.