Barbara Forloney, APRN, CNS, CNP
Clinical Preceptor
Barbara Forloney, APRN, CNS, CNP completed her undergraduate degree at Salve Regina University in 1979. She received her graduate degree in both Psychiatry/Mental Health and Gerontology at the University of Rhode Island in 2007 as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. She returned to the University in 2013 to pursue a post-graduate degree as an Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner in order to deliver a more comprehensive and holistic approach to care. She has worked in multiple healthcare systems that provide
care to adults and older adults including acute care hospitals, assisted living facilities, long term care facilities, and home care agencies. She has provided consultative liaison services in the hospital to both older adults with geriatric syndromes (falls, polypharmacy, delirium) and to patients with behavioral health problems. She has maintained a private practice providing both psychotherapy and medication
management since 2007. She has also worked as a provider on an acute inpatient psychiatric unit and an intensive treatment unit, each of which taught her the art and science of prescribing for acutely ill individuals.
The field of Psychiatry and behavioral health changes rapidly so to continue with new evidence for safe
practice, Barbara teaches in undergraduate nursing programs and continues as adjunct faculty for the
University of Rhode Island. She also enjoys supervising NP students in the clinical setting. She has been
invited to lecture in graduate programs on topics such as performing comprehensive geriatric assessment,
geriatric psychopharmacology and identification of psychiatric illnesses in primary care practice. She has
been involved in research projects that involved mobility in older adults, delirium and nurses’ ability to
identify the differences between anxiety and agitation for the purpose of appropriate medication in
hospitalized older adults. She also enjoys doing health related community lectures related to stress
reduction, self-care management and advocacy. Her long-term goal is to enroll in a Functional Medicine
program to expand her knowledge base on getting to the root cause of psychiatric illness’ while
continuing to provide holistic care in the context of shared decision making.