Janet Clingaman, MN, ARNP received her Master of Nursing degree in 1991 at the University of Washington. She has worked as a psychiatric nurse practitioner for the past 24 years in Washington state, mostly in rural community mental health centers.
Ms. Clingaman has worked in mental health settings her entire nursing career, inspired to enter this specialty by a nursing school mentor. Her first experience with integrated care was at her current job at Unity Care Northwest in Bellingham, an FQHC where she has worked for the past 4 years.
Ms. Clingaman’s interest in integrated care stems from a career working largely in isolation from the general medical community, and the challenges she had in advocating for the medical needs of her patients. Her primary patient population has been the chronically mentally ill, a population with a high burden of co-morbid health problems who encounter many barriers getting healthcare.
Her goals for the remainder of her career are to improve the integrated care program at her current job and to serve as a preceptor to future nurse practitioner students.