Mertie L. Potter, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC
- Professor Emerita
- Nursing
Dr. Potter was a Professor in the School of Nursing at MGH Institute of Health Professions. She was awarded Professor Emerita status in 2018.
Dr. Potter is ANCC-certified as a family psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and as an adult psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist. She taught mainly in the Direct-Entry Master's program. She also enjoyed working with students on scholarly projects and capstone projects.
Dr. Potter maintains a clinical practice of seeing individuals across the lifespan for psychopharmacology and psychotherapy at Merrimack Valley Counseling Association in Nashua, NH. Some areas of expertise include depression, stress management, anxiety, mood disorders, and loss and grieving.
Her additional professional interests include suffering, group work, nursing theory, crisis intervention, chronic illness, pain management, spirituality, medical missions, and camp nursing.
Dr. Potter served for 5 years on the New Hampshire Board of Nursing. She was Vice-Chairperson for 2 1/2 of those years. She has brought several teams of NP students to the Dominican Republic and plans to do future trips.
- BA, Simmons College, Boston, MA
- MS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- DNP, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
- Family Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certificate, Rutgers, The State University of NJ, Newark, NJ
Dr. Potter received her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Potter's scholarship has focused on loss and bereavement, group process, nursing theory, suffering, compassion fatigue, burnout, and empathy in student nurses. She co-authored with Drs. Perrin, Sheehan, and Kazanowski an AJN book of the year, Palliative Care Nursing: Caring for Suffering Patients (2011), published by Jones & Bartlett.” Dr. Potter also co-authored with Dr. Mary Moller the Pearson, Education, Inc. textbook, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: From Suffering to Hope; it was published in January 2015.
Research Interests
Dr. Potter's research interests are related to spirituality, learned resourcefulness, chronic illness, health perception, and suffering (compassion fatigue, burnout, and empathy in student nurses). She continues to do research with co-investigators Drs. Kathleen Perrin, Caryn Sheehan, and Mary Kazanowski on empathy, compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction data from the course they developed titled, “Understanding Suffering,” at Saint Anselm College.
Books
Potter, M. L., & Moller, M. M. (2015), Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: From Suffering to Hope. Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapters
Potter, M. L. (at press). Deliberative Nursing Process. In Peterson, S. J., & Bredow, T. Middle Range Theories: Applications to Nursing Research (4th ed.) (pp. 235-255). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott.
Potter, M. L., & Moller, M. M. (2015). Framework of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. In M. L. Potter & M. M. Moller (Eds.), Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: From Suffering to Hope (pp. 1-23). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Potter, M. L., Durette, S. M., & Warren, B. J. (2015). Psychological Concepts: Theories and Therapies. In M. L. Potter & M. M. Moller (Eds.), Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: From Suffering to Hope (pp. 67-84). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Potter, M. L., & Wynne, B. P, (2015). Loss, suffering, bereavement, and grief. In Matzo, M., & Sherman, D. W. (Eds.). Palliative Care Nursing: Quality Care to the End of Life (4th ed). New York, NY: Springer.
Presentations:
2015 Brant Oliver, Mertie Potter and Mimi O'Donnell, "Creative Curriculum Re-Design: Pilot Implementation and Outcomes of Quality and Safety Curriculum Integration in First Year Nursing Courses." Poster presented at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, Orlando, FL on December 8, 2014.
See Curriculum Vitae for a complete list.