I have had the privilege of serving children and their families at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt since January 2012 when I joined the nurse residency program. I grew
up in Honolulu and obtained my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I obtained my graduate degree from Vanderbilt University and have served as an APRN at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital Vanderbilt Surgery and Clinics in Murfreesboro since its opening in December 2019. I work alongside a wonderful group of pediatric APRNs, providing care for children undergoing same-day elective procedures. Our group performs a thorough history and physical assessment, and coordinates care with community and specialty providers pre-operatively to ensure safe care while minimizing day of service interruptions. Additionally, we provide post-operative education and facilitate timely follow-up.
Our role is unique in that we serve both the pediatric surgical teams and pediatric anesthesia team, working towards increasing surgical accessibility and volume while maintaining patient safety in an ambulatory setting. This has proven to be our greatest challenge, as we do not have access to the same resources as our tertiary colleagues. Said challenges have provided many opportunities for professional growth and process improvement. Shortly after the center opened, I sought evidence-based screening tools and worked with interdisciplinary colleagues to establish consistent patient screening amongst our APRN group. I created a database to identify which patients were considered ineligible for our ambulatory center and rescheduled to our tertiary center. Utilizing this data, I created a screening tool that captured approximately 95% of patients being rescheduled. Our group has since worked with leadership and IT to automate and distribute this tool via MHAV to improve efficiency in our screening process while maintaining minimal day of service interruptions. Our group will be presenting a poster on the topic with our leadership team at the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) conference in March. We are currently working with our clinic colleagues to streamline the tool's use prior to surgery scheduling. Additional efforts have included identifying opportunities for safely expanding our ambulatory surgery center criteria. I will present retrospective data from one such expansion effort, entitled “Expanding Pediatric Ambulatory Surgery Accessibility for Children with Obesity” at AORN in March.
I live in Murfreesboro with my husband, two children and two fur babies. I appreciate the opportunity to serve our community. Our 16yo son keeps us busy with his marching band, swimming and tennis commitments. I particularly enjoy being a "band mom.” My 11yo daughter keeps us entertained with her theatrical performances. She and I serve in a preschool class together at our community church. When time permits, we enjoy traveling, baking sourdough bread, playing volleyball, and doing DIY house projects. I'll never turn down a spin class, bike ride or long walk!