I work as a family nurse practitioner within the Vanderbilt Transplant Center and provide ambulatory post-transplant care to our adult kidney and pancreas transplant recipients. I manage post-surgical complications, provide wound care to patients with poor wound healing, address and manage various medical comorbidities and complications that occur after kidney transplant, and assist patients and their caregivers/families with navigating the post-transplant phase. I also work closely with our post-transplant coordinators, social workers, case managers, surgeons, transplant nephrologists, and pharmacists to coordinate care and ensure a seamless transition from inpatient to outpatient care. I see most of my patients in our new Liver and Kidney Transplant clinic located at the Village at Vanderbilt but am also licensed in Alabama which allows me to provide care via telemedicine to my patients who live in outlying Tennessee and Alabama communities.
The most challenging part of my job is navigating the various socioeconomic and psychosocial challenges that arise post-transplant. Each patient brings their own set of unique challenges but conjuring up creative solutions and finding new ways to provide care to my patients is something that makes my job so rewarding.
I am grateful to have many proud professional moments to share but some of my proudest include completing Vanderbilt's Solid Organ Transplant Advanced Practice Fellowship, being awarded American Society of Transplant Surgeons' 2021 Advanced Transplant Provider Research Grant for my abstract titled "Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental and Physical Patient-Reported Outcomes in Abdominal Transplant Candidates and Recipients", and being named one of Belmont University's Outstanding Alumni at their 50th anniversary for the School of Nursing this year.
My husband Kyle and I recently bought our first home in Ashland City and celebrated our first wedding anniversary on September 25th. In my free time I enjoy traveling to Ohio and Michigan to visit our friends and family, spoiling my nieces and nephews, bowling, trying new restaurants/coffee shops, and exploring middle Tennessee.
