I began my nursing career at Vanderbilt in Summer 2006 as a new graduate RN in the Pediatric Nurse Residency program. For six years, I worked on the 8th floor before transitioning to my current role as an APRN with the Preoperative Assessment and Teaching team at Monroe Carell (PATCH) in May of 2012. Currently, I am the APRN Team Lead for the incredible group of APRNs in the PATCH clinic. Our primary objective is to optimize pediatric patients for upcoming anesthesia care. Our clinic operates on a referral basis, where we evaluate complex pediatric patients before anesthesia. We collaborate with internal and external medical specialists to obtain recommendations for peri-operative management of chronic medical issues. Additionally, we educate patients and families about anesthesia care. We also work with inpatient areas of the hospital, evaluating patients on the day of surgery or anesthesia. Furthermore, there is a team of PATCH APRNs at the Vanderbilt Ambulatory Surgery Center in Murfreesboro.
As a clinician at Monroe Carell, one of the most challenging aspects is the complexity of the patients we care for. As we expand our ambulatory surgery center, the level of acuity of our patients on the main campus remains high. The PATCH team is also continuously working to improve communication and appropriate referrals to ensure that more patients receive better pre-operative care.
Implementing a quality improvement project for a high-risk anesthesia patient population has been one of my proudest professional achievements. In the year before the implementation, 45% of these patients were not identified before surgery which led to delays, cancellations, and frustrations. We implemented new EMR features which have led to 100% identification of these patients while scheduling their upcoming procedures. I presented this work at the ANCC National Magnet Conference as a poster. We plan to expand this feature to other patient populations soon.
Outside of work, I love to read! I also enjoy crafting, crocheting, and spending time with my husband and two daughters. As Middle Tennessee natives, we both have close-knit family in the area that we visit often. 