Course Overview

This evidence-based continuing education course prepares nurses in every setting to recognize suicide risk, screen for the mental health conditions that most often contribute to it, respond to a positive screen, and connect patients with care. It gives particular attention to veterans and their family members, including how to identify military-connected patients, the mental health considerations that follow service, and the VA and community resources nurses can use.

Topics include: suicide as a public health and nursing issue and current CDC data, suicide terminology including suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and nonsuicidal self-injury, risk and protective factors at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels, warning signs and how they differ from risk factors, depression and suicide risk, PTSD symptoms and screening, trauma-informed communication, grief, traumatic loss, and prolonged grief versus depression, substance use and suicide risk, who is a veteran and how to ask about military service, PTSD, moral injury, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, sleep disturbance, transition stress, and access to lethal means among veterans, caregiver stress and secondary trauma in military families, the Veterans Crisis Line and VA mental health resources, asking directly about suicide, the PHQ-9, Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, and ASQ, responding to a positive screen using stay, listen, assess, protect, and connect, collaborative safety planning and lethal means safety, and escalation, handoff, documentation, and continuity of care.

Each chapter includes case-based self-check questions with answers and rationales, and the course concludes with a 10-question post-test. Emphasis is placed on what a nurse who is not a mental health specialist can do at the bedside or in the clinic: notice a change, ask a direct and compassionate question, use a validated screen, and make sure the patient is not left alone with their risk.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify risk and protective factors, warning signs, and populations associated with increased suicide risk.
2. Recognize mental health conditions and experiences that may contribute to suicide risk, including PTSD, depression, grief, trauma, and substance use.
3. Identify evidence-based approaches to screening, assessing suicide risk, and applying suicide risk-prevention interventions in nursing practice.
4. Recognize mental health considerations and appropriate resources relevant to veterans and their families.

Key Features

Course Author: Vanessa Cameron, PhD, RN. Nurse Planner: Joanna Nolte, MSN, APRN, ANP-BC, FNP-BC, Accredited Provider Program Director. No conflicts of interest to disclose.

Release date: November 1, 2026. Expires October 31, 2029.