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Showcasing
Scholars
During the next several months,
AACN will proudly author individual graduate narratives.
In these stories, each of the remarkable graduates emerges
as a talented leader who is driven by passion for gerontology
nursing. AACN boasts a long history of commitment to
gerontological nursing educational initiatives and hopes to
inspire others by chronicling Creating Careers graduates’
professional accomplishments.
 Laura
McNamara, APRN-BC, ANP, GNP ACHPN
Boston College
Creating Careers graduate
Laura McNamara earned her baccalaureate degree from Harvard
University in 1982 (with a major in English literature) and
an MBA from Northeastern University in 1988. She became interested
in nursing in 1989 when her first child at 18 months of age,
was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. His eye was removed and
the vision in his second eye worsened permanently. Through
the whole traumatic process, nurses “held our family
together.” Laura’s course was set—she wanted
to be just like them, and from that point forward, made nursing
her life mission.
After the birth of her fourth
and last child (all boys) she completed her science pre-requisites
and enrolled in Boston College’s accelerated BSN-to-MSN
program. She had already picked gerontology as her specialty,
having lovingly cared for older family members on both sides
of her family through the years. Pat Tabloski, Associate Dean
of Graduate Studies at Boston College’s SON, who has
“a down-to-earth passion” for gerontology, encouraged
Laura to apply for the Hartford scholarship funding.
Laura enjoyed being a full-time
nursing student, with “great support” from her
project investigator and fellow Hartford scholars. Being an
older student was “a delightful experience.” Most
of the graduate nursing students were “girls in their
20’s, up here without families, needing mothering.”
She graduated in May of 2004, and became dually certified
through the ANCC as an ANP/GNP.
She’s been working for the
Evercare Corporation since 2005, at Marion Manor long-term
care facility in South Boston. She believes strongly
in the Evercare model—“We treat the whole person
in his current circumstance, with consideration to his environment,
faith and family. We can do a lot right here, diagnosing and
treating and avoiding hospitalizations, which are tough on
the elderly. I enjoy my pts and feel privileged to be part
of their lives.” In 2007 Laura became certified
through the National Board for Certification of Hospice
and Palliative Care Nurses.
Her incredibly laid-back and supportive
husband “is the reason I have been able to do my work.” Credit
manager at a wine and beer company, he provides “lovely
wine at home.” Her oldest son was recently admitted
to the Univeristy of Massachusetts, Boston with a full scholarship.
The other boys are 15, 13 and 10. When queried about what
she does for fun, she responded, “Honestly, I really
enjoy my family. Most of what I do is with them.”
Alicia Wolf, MSN, GNP-BC
Case Western Reserve University
During her second year at The
Ohio State University’s BSN program, AACN/JAHF Creating
Careers graduate Alicia Wolf had her clinical rotation
in a nursing home for individuals with dementia. At this site,
she discovered her talent for providing nursing care to the
elderly. Shortly after earning her BSN in 2002, she heeded
her undergraduate gerontology preceptor’s advice to
pursue a gerontological advanced practice nursing degree.
She was accepted as a scholar in the Hartford Creating
Careers program. In 2004 she completed her MSN degree
and became ANCC-certified as a geriatric nurse practitioner.
Alicia has fond memories of the
moment when she became forever “hooked on gerontology.”
At the dementia care unit, she continually noticed a tall,
dignified gentleman patient who came to all meals in a suit
and tie. In spite of his dementia, he recognized music
and remembered his classical dance moves. One day, accompanied
by piped-in background music in the nursing home cafeteria,
he and Alicia waltzed (she was taking a ballroom dancing class
at the time). “I have some kind of knack with
dementia patients,” Alicia reflects. “It comes
easy to me. They may not know what day it is, but they can
tell me about their lives, and when they do, they are happy.”
Alicia loves her current job (since
2004) at a small physician’s group that is affiliated
with Summa Health Systems in Akron, Ohio. The group consists
of seven geriatricians and five gerontological nurse practitioners,
all of whom work in multiple venues. Alicia provides services
to geriatric patients on a rehabilitation unit and for geriatric
individuals involved in a transitional home-care program.
She also provides consultation on a geriatric inpatient hospital
unit.
With encouragement from her advisor,
Dr. Evelyn Duffy, Alicia became a member of the National
Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners (NCGNP)
in 2005. In September 2006, she became president of the Ohio
Chapter of NCGNP. The Ohio Chapter is co-hosting a long-term
care conference with the Ohio Medical Director’s
Association and the Ohio American Society of Consultant
Pharmacists, to take place October 2007. Alicia remains
proud of her involvement with this enterprise.
With involvement in professional
organizations, Alicia’s confidence has grown. She hopes
to eventually move to Columbus and build a GNP program at
her undergraduate alma mater, Ohio State.
 Cindi
Brantley, GNP
Duke University
"It's outside Asheville,
just before you get to Tennessee. It's not even a town-it's
a post office," says 2005 Creating Careers graduate
Cindi Brantley of her home town--Swannanoa, North Carolina.
Since graduating from her master's program she continues to
live in this rural community that she loves, providing care
to its elderly residents.
After earning her bachelors from
UNC Asheville and working in her county's social services
department, a serendipitous series of events led her to her
next job in 1991, full-time directorship of a local nursing
home's social services department. At this "amazing Seventh
Day Adventist facility, I fell in love with the elderly patients.
They taught me how our country used to be."
In 1993, she enrolled at Asheville-Buncombe
Technical College where she earned her associate degree in
nursing, and in 1997 earned her BSN from Western Carolina
University. In 2003, Duke University's Dr. Ellie McConnell,
interested in building relationships with colleagues in the
Asheville area, visited Cindi's place of employment. Cindi
became a Hartford GNP scholarship recipient shortly thereafter.
A 2005 graduate, she began work with Extended Care Physicians,
PA, a group of 16 doctors and four NPs who provide primary
medical care to older adults in nursing homes, assisted living
facilities, and retirement communities in a seven-county area.
Married in 1997, Cindi enjoys
her relationships with her three step-children (16, 21 and
25), and daughter Anna, born in 2005. Cindi's large and extended
family, including her parents and her mother-in-law live in
the Asheville area. Cindi intends to remain, happy and settled
in Swannanoa, working for ECP indefinitely -"After all,
docs like NPs. We collaborate. It's a healthy environment."
 Kelly
Acevedo, RN, MSN, APRN-BC
Emory University
After obtaining a B.S. in psychology
and sitting for the MCAT exam in 1999, Creating Careers
graduate Kelly Acevedo changed her mind. At her job as
an emergency room tech, she had become enthralled with her
nursing colleagues as they interacted with their patients
while caring for them. She quickly shifted her career path,
and was accepted into Emory University’s BSN program.
Impatient with younger patients and their “tendency
to exaggerate” in the emergency room, she gravitated
toward the older ones. “We need to pay attention to
elderly patients. They deserve to be revered.” Her interest
in gerontology nursing was born.
After graduation, she landed a
job in the Long Term Acute Care unit of Emory’s
free-standing geriatric hospital. It houses both a long-term
ventilator unit and a short-term stay unit. She “enjoyed
getting the over-70 set off ventilators, helping them walk
again and returning them home. I love teaching the elderly
while they teach me. It’s a give and take.” She
once cared for a patient who had marched with Martin Luther
King and another who was among the 1,000 African-American
Tuskegee airmen to serve in WWII.
Kelly pursued Emory’s graduate
gerontological nursing program with a vengeance after being
picked as a Hartford scholarship recipient. She worked full-time
and attended school full-time, finishing her accelerated program
in one calendar year (8/04 thru 8/05). She recalls her favorite
clinical at Grady Memorial Hospital, thanks to a geriatrician
role model. He made house calls, hugged patients and sat patiently
with them as he explained medical procedures.
After becoming ANCC-certified
as a gerontological nurse practitioner in December of 2005,
she and her husband moved to Charleston, where he attends
nursing school. She loves her job as NP for a palliative medicine
program sponsored by Hospice of Charleston and Roper Hospital.
She works with two doctors who are board-certified in hospice
and palliative care and one social worker in this hospital-based
consult service. The team develops elaborate care plans for
patients suffering from chronic, life-threatening illnesses.
The consult service, which began in 2005, boasted 110% growth
last year.
She and her husband intend to
stay in Charleston for the foreseeable future. She plans to
become certified as a hospice and palliative care specialist,
and to eventually help open an inpatient palliative care wing.
When asked what she does for fun, Kelly responded, “My
husband is in nursing school! Nothing!” After
some prodding, she conceded that as proud owners of a coon
hound and a dauschund/lab mix, the couple loves to walk their
dogs through downtown Charleston and on the nearby beach two
miles from their home.
 Clausyl
Plummer, RN, MSN
Emory University
Forty-three-year-old Army nurse
and Creating Careers graduate Clausyl Plummer earned
his CNS/GNP degree from Emory University in 2006. Born in
Jamaica, he moved to the United States in 1984 after finishing
his baccalaureate degree with a major in biology from West
Indies College. He enlisted in the Army in 1989 where
he trained to become a medic, then an LPN, and finally, a
BSN-prepared RN. He became interested in gerontology while
working for many years in Georgia as a critical care nurse
in a large Army hospital’s medical intensive care unit.
Clausyl is the oldest of three brothers, all of whom pursued
careers in health care. Clausyl married in 1986 and proudly
boasts the accomplishments of his two children, one a pre-med
student and the other a pre-law student. After losing his
mother to pancreatic cancer in 1999, he cared for his 77-year
old grief-stricken father, a retired theologian who remains
in Jamaica. He saw “some quality of my dad’s aging
process in every one of my geriatric patients. They ask themselves
how they will live the rest of their lives. Life becomes more
deliberate for them; they decide to spend their time with
their grandchildren or to write their memoirs. They are at
peace.”
He was honored when chosen to pursue his medical/surgical
CNS degree at Emory in 2001. Faculty recognized his interest
in and talent with the elderly, and encouraged him to combine
degrees and apply for the Hartford GNP scholarship. Pursuing
graduate nursing at Emory proved to be a sobering experience
for Clausyl. “I had entered the big leagues,”
he recalls. “I had always thought I was pretty smart.
I spent most of my time trying to keep up! I very much wanted
to graduate with a decent ranking among my peers.”
Deployed to Baghdad in early 2005 to the 86th Combat Support
Hospital, he worked 12 hour shifts six days a week in the
hospital’s surgical ICU, an experience that was “traumatic,
frustrating and rewarding.” He returned to Georgia
in December to manage an ICU and recovery room at Winn Army
Community Hospital, where most of the patients were 65 or
older. He finished his master’s program in 2006.
In 2007, Clausyl and five other Army nurses were recruited
by the Army Nurse Corps and the University of Maryland, who
had forged a partnership to address the nationwide shortage
of nursing instructors. He and his five colleagues moved to
Baltimore in August of 2007 to participate in this two-year
program as undergraduate nursing faculty. He currently teaches
a fundamentals lab, a med/surg clinical, and a med/surg senior
practicum course in Maryland’s undergraduate nursing
program.
In addition to teaching full-time and remaining in active
duty, Clausyl just began an online post-master’s teaching
certificate program. He also plans to pursue doctoral study
at some point in the near future. With his many talents,
ambitious nature, knowledge of and passion for gerontology
nursing, Clausyl emerges as a dynamic leader whose influence
in the field has only just begun.
Kelynne J. Edmond, RN,
MSN, GNP-BC
Long Island University
AACN/JAHF Creating Careers
graduate, Kelynne Edmond feels blessed to have been a Hartford
scholarship recipient. Thirty-four-year-old Kelynne, a Brooklyn,
NY native and daughter of Haitian immigrants, earned her degree
in geriatric advanced practice nursing from Long Island University
(LIU) in June of 2007. Many years before, as a fiercely
determined 18-year-old single mother, she earned an associate
degree in Humanities from Laguardia Community College. She
then overcame devastating odds as she continued her education.
In 1998, her third son Akur was
born with kidney disease. Plagued during his short life with
complications related to his condition, he died in 1999 at
the age of 15 months. Kelynne, wracked by her grief, was overwhelmed
by the compassionate nursing care her son received at Brooklyn
Hospital. “Akur made me what I am today,”
says Kelynne, who decided during his illness to become a nurse,
just like the loving nurses who cared for her boy.
After her loss, she rallied the
strength to pursue an accelerated track toward her BSN. degree
at LIU. Her patient population was primarily 55+ at her first
nursing job in med/surg at an acute care hospital. She recalls
that she “loved it, felt I was making a difference in
people’s lives.” While developing a keen interest
in chronic health conditions among the elderly, she raised
her three sons, Aaron, Anthony and Alex.
In 2003, she became an AACN/JAHF
Creating Careers scholar at LIU. With “this
wonderful opportunity,” she was determined to “do
whatever I had to do to make it happen.” She struggled.
“If I stayed with the cards I was dealt, I would not
be where I am today,” she reflects. “I had
to be aggressive.” She began her master’s
when her boys were 12, 11, and 9, while continuing to work
full-time. Her parents and her partner, Wendell, helped her
juggle her responsibilities. “It’s doable
because I did it. I kept telling myself that I had a
responsibility to see this through.” At graduation in
2007, 6-month old A.J. had joined her family.
As Senior Staff Nurse, she often
supervises four RN’s, four nurse techs and the unit
clerk. End-of-life and palliative care issues abound.
The frail elderly make up about 60% of her patient load. She
believes strongly that her master’s education helps
her assess and treat her patients in ways that she would not
otherwise know. “I’m not just dispensing medication.
I have a body of knowledge. I am always answering questions,
sharing ideas, giving advice.” Her “side jobs”
include LIU adjunct clinical instructor; and basic cardiac
life support trainer for nursing students.
Although NP certification at the
national level is not required in NY, she took and passed
the GNP exam through the Amercian Nurses Credentialing Center.
She plans to eventually move from acute care to long-term
care, possibly at an Evercare facility. She also hopes to
relocate geographically within the next couple of years to
Arizona, Texas or New Mexico, so that Aaron, Anthony, Alex
and A.J. can run and play in wide open spaces. Regarding her
children’s reactions to her career pursuits, she reflects,
“My children are very proud of me. I hope I have
made them into tomorrow’s achievers.”
 Marianne
Gelber, MSN, GNP, ACHPN
New York University
New York native Marianne Gelber
boasts a life-long interest in nursing, born of family health
crises that began during her childhood. Fearlessly and
instinctively, she simply knew from an early age how to handle
palliative care issues, bereavement, and the elderly.
Currently a nurse practitioner certified in both gerontology
through the American Nursing Credentialing Center,
and in advanced certified hospice and palliative care through
the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Care
Nursing, she remains passionate about her work.
Marianne benefited from a myriad
of valuable experiences after earning a BSN from Georgetown
University in Washington, D.C. in 1975. She landed her
first RN job in George Washington University hospital’s
neurosurgery department, until choosing to locate back home
in 1977. For the next 15 years, she served pediatric
patients and their families at New York’s Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center (she took a two-year break to work
in Saudi Arabia).
After earning an MBA from the
City University of New York at Baruch, she managed an office
practice, day hospital, and pediatric IV chemotherapy team
at Sloan. Recruited by a head hunter in 1991 to work
for a home infusion company, she eventually became their national
director of nursing, setting up branches across the country.
Her wanderlust then took her to Russia in 1993 to be director
of operations at a full-service clinic.
She married in New York in 1994.
Her new husband, in his late 60s, was soon diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease. With love, sensitivity, and a wealth
of knowledge, she ministered to him full-time until his death
in 2001. To care for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease,
“you have to live their reality. If the queen
is coming, set the table for tea.” She recalls,
“Although I was on house arrest for eight years, I was
my husband’s life extender. His quality of life
was good. And so was mine.”
She waited a year before returning
to graduate school. In 2006, she graduated from NYU with a
combined master’s in gerontology and palliative care.
She works with four nurse practitioners on a multidisciplinary
team at Mount Sinai Medical Center. On this consultative service,
she follows chronically ill patients, most of whom are elderly,
with pain and symptom management, disposition planning, supportive
counseling and education. By blending her two specialties,
she “offers so much to patients and families. I can
tease out realistic care plans based on their values and goals.”
 Margaret Brickley, NP
Northeastern University
Creating Careers grad Margaret Brickley, proud 1976 graduate of the New England Baptist Hospital School of Nursing, “one of the best nursing diploma schools in the Northeast,” has since obtained her baccalaureate degree (1980), MSN (2000), and certificate of advanced nursing study (2002). Margaret graduated in 2004 and became board certified in acute care nursing and gerontology.
Margaret has a broad base of clinical experience in hospital, community and practice settings. In the 90’s, frustrated by the lack of service coordination for elders, she started a geriatric care management company, proud to have forged through uncharted territory advocating for elder care at a time when cuts in services and care were pervasive. She’s also eternally grateful for the Hartford scholarship which helped her fund her MSN program, no small feat given that her children were in college at the time.
While in graduate school, she managed the acute care needs of elders in skilled facilities, and worked as partner to a neurologist, assessing patients with memory and sleep disorders. Currently as his full-time partner, she offers their mostly elderly clientele a unique combination of specialization in both gerontology and neurology (e.g. insomnia, depression and seizures are often under-recognized and under-treated in the elderly, and she provides care accordingly). She believes strongly that neurology is “a great area for NPs,” and she hopes that with time, more will be attracted to the specialty.
While pursuing her professional calling, Margaret helped raise a son and daughter, both college grads with professional jobs. Her husband, retired from teaching, works part-time as an attorney. Margaret’s 83 year old mother, who has worked full-time for 35 years as an accounting clerk at Talbots, has no plans to retire. “I have her genes. I look forward to working many years,” comments Margaret. She’s also a preceptor in area nursing schools, “sharing my knowledge of neurology, which students need in primary care.” Although she finds time to kayak and ski, she’s, “very busy working. I love it!”
 Andrea
Yevchak, GCNS-BC, RN
Penn State University
Pennsylvania native and 2007 Creating
Careers graduate Andrea Yevchak was destined from an early
age to pursue a Penn State education. Not only was she influenced
by her Penn State grad father, but also by family traditions
involving travel to State College for football games and holidays.
Currently a Penn State PhD candidate, she's earned both a
baccalaureate and master's degree there as well. Shortly after
obtaining her BSN in 2005 and ready to start her working life
as an RN, she received a fortuitous phone call from the School
of Nursing's Dr. Janice Penrod, who offered her a John A.
Hartford Foundation advanced practice nursing scholarship.
To become a recipient of the funding, she was told, she'd
need to specialize in gerontology.
"You would be good at gerontology!"
her mother told her. She took the scholarship, enrolled in
the GAPN program, and as her mother had predicted, became
enamored of gerontology nursing. Andrea has found Penn State's
SON to be "more intimate, more 1:1 than most schools.
I know my professors and all of their kids! Faculty is willing
to go the extra step to help us succeed as nurses, students
and individuals."
After graduating as a GCNS in
2007, she worked as a nurse case manager at a CCRC. She learned
"that managing people is not my specialty." Regarding
patient care, she realized that, for gerontology patients
with complex care needs, "interdisciplinary teams are
the best alternative." The residents "became my
grandparents. I was able to be in their lives from independent
living, to hospital, to skilled nursing and back to their
homes. They trusted me."
Now in the PhD program,
Andrea is researching health promotion and prevention of dementia
in the elderly. She is proud to announce that her first article
has been published in the October 2008 issue of Geriatric
Nursing, titled, "A Review of Clinical Implications of
Cognitive Vitality." It provides the gerontology nurse
with a "how-to" list of tips for nursing demented
patients. Her free time, filled with adventures baking in
the kitchen and excursions to the gym and yoga class always
leaves some room to continue on as a "huge Penn State
football fan."
 Sarah
Gilbert, APRN, BC
Radford University
Creating Careers graduate
Sarah Gilbert left her native North Carolina in 1976 to enroll
in the BSN program at Radford University in southwest Virginia.
For the next twenty years, she worked as an RN mostly in cardiac
rehab, where she became completely enamored of her primarily
geriatric clientele. After losing her father to Alzheimer’s
disease in 2001, she became convinced that “gerontology
was where I wanted to be. The aging population is vulnerable
and growing and desperately needs help.” In 2002, she
became a recipient of the Hartford scholarship at Radford’s
GCNS program, having been prodded by a former professor to
pursue a master’s degree.
Fascinated by the curriculum and
inspired by the camaraderie that developed among the gerontology
nursing grad students, she stayed in the program an extra
semester to complete a thesis, rather than a capstone project.
Her thesis explored attitudes about end-of-life decision making
in community-dwelling older adults. Her school’s
project investigator and personal mentor, Dr. Virginia Burggraf
arranged for her and fellow graduate students to meet nursing
icons at the 2003 HGNI Leadership Conference and GSA meeting
in San Diego, an experience that she recalls, “blew
me away.”
Dr. Burggraf encouraged Sarah
to attend a week-long faculty training workshop in Houston
during the summer of 2003. Led by gerntological nursing
icon Dr. Claire Fagin, it gave her tools that she uses daily.
She attends NGNA every year, participates on its planning
committee, and writes for its new core curriculum, all of
these activities as a result of “Ginger Burggraf dragging
me everywhere!” Sarah boasts membership in
several professional organizations: NGNA, Sigma Theta Tau,
NACNS and ANA. A 2005 graduate, she earned ANCC-certification
as a gerontolgical clinical nurse specialist.
Currently, Sarah works as a case
manager in a retirement community for elderly and disabled
residents who live in 160 of the facility’s government-subsidized
apartments. She also holds a position as part-time faculty
at Radford, where she co-teaches an undergraduate gerontology
nursing course with Ginger Burggraf. Sarah “loves
to guide students to learn how to care for older adults.”
She often refers them to the JAHF “try-this” series.
She advises students regarding their clinical placements across
the continuum of care; she remains especially excited about
the talks they give in elementary and high schools regarding
healthy living to ensure healthy aging.
Long-term plans include doctoral
study. She will most probably pursue the DNP degree long-distance
at a university that has an online gerontology track, and
continue teaching and clinical work. Her physician husband
shares her love for the elderly, happy to treat Medicare-only
patients who have been denied services by other doctors. Currently,
the two are considering collaboration. They intend to pursue
their goals and raise their 14 year old son while remaining
in rural Radford and its peaceful environs.
 Angela
Hall, ANP, GNP
Seattle Pacific University
Creating Careers grad Angela
Hall received her "basic training" in nursing in
her native Scotland. She nursed in several different capacities
while still in her homeland, including as a midwife and as
a charge nurse on an acute medical floor that served primarily
an older adult clientele. In her early 30's, she and her husband
moved to the United States, settling in California. While
working on the bone marrow transplant unit at Stanford University
Hospital, she earned her RN-to-BSN degree from San Jose State,
then her master's with a gerontology/education focus from
the same university.
A fortuitous move to western Washington
state and a position there in the oncology/solid tumor clinic
led Angela toward specialization in gerontology. She happened
to see in the staff circular an article about her facility
teaming with SPU to sponsor a post-master's certification
in gerontology. She interviewed and was offered the Hartford
funding. "Without the opportunity of Hartford, I never
would have made the advanced practice choices I made."
During her career, she "has always had a passion for
gerontology."
As an ANCC-certified ANP and GNP,
Angela treats mostly elderly patients who are newly diagnosed
with lymphoma/leukemia, and who are being treated with chemotherapy
or who have undergone stem-cell transplants at the University
of Washington outpatient hematology/oncology clinic. She speaks
highly of her NP training that has taught her management of
complex medical problems, as well as an appreciation of the
interplay among her patients' physical, emotional, functional
and social situations. Many of her older adult patients experience
psycho/social problems including: absence of local extended
family members, deteriorating health of elderly spouses, problems
accessing transportation, financial constraints, social isolation
and depression, to name a few.
"Ours is a rough society
to age in-it is less tolerant of seniors. I help them navigate
the system. I bring them all of my years of experience that
factor in together." To maintain her delicate work/play
balancing act, she employs "strict boundary rules, leaving
work at the door." She loves to read and spend time with
family and friends. Travel remains her deepest passion-she
proudly boasts a history of journeying all over the western
world, including most of Europe and North America.
 Joan Peterson, RN MSN GCNS-BC
Seattle Pacific University
2005 Creating Careers grad Joan Peterson became a nurse at her first opportunity, following in the footsteps of her mother, aunt and countless cousins before her. After graduating from high school in 1980, she earned her BSN from the University of Minnesota (she’s a native). Her first nursing job landed her on a medical oncology unit in Wenatchee, Washington, where she intended to get experience for a few years before moving back home. Instead, she settled in at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center--nine years on a general surgery floor and three years as a unit supervisor in short-stay surgery. During this time, she developed a keen interest in her elderly patients.
"Certain populations you gravitate towards. The old people seemed to be a burden to other staff. I didn’t want to see them marginalized. So many older adults live in isolation, unable to share their wisdom with us, but we can learn from them. Through their stories, we gain perspective,” Joan reflects. She found herself regularly in the role of nurse educator to the hospital’s med/surg nursing staff, eager to learn more. She soon became a recipient of SPU’s Hartford GAPN scholarship funding, completing the program in 2005, and earning her ANCC certification as a GCNS.
A 20-year veteran of Swedish Medical Center, she now rounds on six med/surg units, teaching care of the hospitalized older adult, to include pain management and treatment of delirium/dementia. A strong proponent of “CAM,” a confusion assessment method that screens for overall cognitive impairment and that distinguishes delirium or reversible confusion from other types of cognitive impairment, she hopes to persuade the-powers-that-be to incorporate it as standard departmental procedure.
Chair of her hospital’s fall committee and an active member of her local nursing collaborative, she’s also recently spear-headed a nursing quality leaders program that meets regularly to discuss fall prevention. Busy Joan takes full advantage of her time away from work, escaping when opportunity arises to exotic destinations with her mother or fellow church members, most recently to Italy, Israel, the Philippines, Peru and Haiti.
 Linda
Todd, ARNP
Seattle Pacific University
2005 Creating Careers grad
and native Washingtonian Linda Todd recalls two life-changing
events during her late teens and early twenties that influenced
her choice to pursue a nursing career. First, a diagnosis
of ITP her senior year in high school caused her "to
grow up quickly. I was dealing with my own mortality. Having
the illness gave me the gumption and belief that I could do
anything that I want." Second, her most memorable summer
job as a receptionist for a hand surgeon tweaked her interest
in medicine. She set her sights on nursing, enrolled in community
college and earned an associate's degree in 1976. After completing
the coursework necessary for the BSN in 1978, she became the
first person in her extended family to graduate from college.
During the next two decades,
Linda did "lots of different things. After four or five
years, I would get too comfy and move on." She was a
nurse in a hospital coronary care unit where she was able
to "multi-task and think out of the box." She taught
CCU nursing to new grads in a Seattle hospital and later became
charge nurse in a V.A. emergency room, "a tough job."
After the birth of her daughter, she began her long association
with Group Health Association, an HMO. At GHC, she enjoyed
several positions in both hospitals and clinics "teaching
patients, coordinating care, and using critical thinking skills."
Next for Linda came the birth of her second and last child,
a son.
.
Throughout her years of employment Linda cultivated an interest
in gerontology and, in 2002 became a recipient of the Hartford
GAPN funding at SPU. "I felt like I'd won the lottery,"
she recalls, thrilled at the opportunity to pursue gerontology
nursing as a Hartford scholar. Since graduating in 2004 and
becoming certified as an ANP and GNP, she continues to work
for GHC as a nursing home "rounder," providing primary
care to elderly patients in several long term care facilities.
She is also starting to see patients in assisted living facilities
and Adult Family Homes. On weekends, Linda does geriatric
assessments on potential adult family-home residents, a "fun
job where I am able to help patients and their families by
using my expertise as an NP." Although absorbed by work,
she cherishes her time with her family and in the great outdoors,
where she enjoys biking, skiing, hiking and walking.
 Stacey
Green, RN, MSN, APRN-BC
University of California Los Angeles
2004 Creating Careers
graduate Stacey Green wanted to be a nurse from age five,
inspired by Nurse Dixie on the television program, Emergency,
who “was so smart, always knew what to do, and everyone
listened to her.” Eventually, she became her own Nurse
Dixie—after earning her BSN, MSN, and dual-ANCC certification,
she started her own practice. Although Stacey’s
educational journey was a bit circuitous, she benefited from
the myriad of experiences, continually incorporating new learning.
Believing nurses to be doctor
“servants,” her parents tried to steer her away
from a nursing career. Eager to please, after high school
she attended Pitzer College in Clairmont, California, where
she changed her major five times in three years before dropping
out. She then obtained an emergency medical technician degree,
but lasted in the field for only six months, bored by “basic
first aid with a driver’s license.”
For six memorable years as medical
assistant to a cardiologist, she delighted in rounding with
him and observing cardiac catheterizations at West Hills Hospital.
Of his frail, elderly cardiac patients, she recalls “rapport
with them. They were more appreciative, told me stories.”
Her cardiologist boss pushed her in the nursing school direction;
finally in 1998, she began the BSN program at Mt. St. Mary’s
College in L.A.
While a student she worked full-time
at a UCLA neurology step-down clinic. She graduated in 2002
with a 3.98 GPA, and without skipping a beat, secured a Hartford
GAPN scholarship at UCLA. The Hartford program provided “financial,
emotional, peer and academic support,” the likes of
which she’s “never known, before or since.”
She graduated in 2004 with majors
in gerontology and neuropsychiatry, obtained ANCC certification
as a GNP, worked in a hematology/oncology clinic, and passed
the advanced oncology certified nurse practitioner exam. In
2005, after feeling “a little burned out” with
oncology, she teamed up with an infectious diseases specialist,
with whom she rounded in nursing homes. She aims for certification
in infection control this year.
Currently, in her contracting
business as partner to doctors who round in San Fernando Valley
nursing homes and hospitals, she combines her expertise in
geriatrics, emergency medicine, oncology, neurology and infectious
diseases. With time, she plans to direct a facility that will
cater specifically to elders, and will be part nursing home/assisted
living/acute care. It will be staffed exclusively with RNs
and NPs. She is also in the process of persuading UCLA
to open a DNP program, which she plans to attend. The secret
to Stacey’s success has been encouragement from her
husband, who is “the best person I know. He made me
the person I am and want to be.”
 Jaime
Green-Becerril, GNP
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois, Creating
Careers, graduate Jaime Green-Becerril began her life
in central California's wine country. Plagued with asthma
as a child, she was "in and out of hospitals…They
were a relief to me…They made me breathe." These
early positive patient experiences influenced her to pursue
a career in nursing. After graduating from CSU Sacramento
nursing school in 1998, she married and worked several nursing
jobs in her home state.
During the summer of 1998, she
interned in the neurology ICU at the Mayo Clinic, "a
great experience." Back at home on the cardiac/thoracic
surgery and lung/liver transplant units at UC Davis Medical
Center, she worked as a student nurse extern and later, an
employee. During her employ, UC Davis and only nine other
hospitals nationwide had achieved prestigious "magnet"
status, recognition for sustained excellence in nursing care.
The newlyweds moved to Chicago
in 2001. While working on the cardiovascular ICU at Northwestern,
she found herself advocating for her older patients. Her interest
continued to grow-"I take delirium! I take dementia!"
she proudly informed her staff. She soon became recipient
of UIC's Hartford GAPN funding, graduating and becoming ANCC-certified
in 2005.
After her daughter was born
in January of 2006, she began working flexible hours as an
independent contractor at a small company owned by her former
preceptor, an NP. Treating elderly patients in two long-term-care
facilities, she continues to be "blown away" by
their stories about the past. Otherwise, she leads "the
simple life," taking her daughter and new baby on outings,
reading and cooking. She loves precepting students, her "way
of giving back," and with time, hopes to pursue doctoral
study.
 Romelia
Salazar, GNP
University of Massachusetts Worcester
Creating Careers grad Romelia
Salazar earned a B.A. in psychology in 1999. After working
in a few administrative jobs, she yearned for a bigger challenge
and started looking at nursing as a potential career. From
2003-2005, while working as an administrative specialist in
the nursing research department of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute, she met several highly accomplished advanced practice
nurses who mentored and encouraged her to pursue a nursing
career. "Their passion opened up my eyes." She set
her sights on becoming a GNP, qualified for the Hartford scholarship
and began the accelerated master's program at UMass Worcester.
Living in Boston and working on
the sub-acute unit of Boston's Hebrew Rehabilitation Center
for the Aged, Romelia commuted to Worcester an hour away,
to attend school full-time. After graduating in the summer
of 2008, she passed her gerontology boards through the ANCC.
She currently works at the rehabilitation center, and plans
to take the acute care boards in December, 2008. Her goal
is to work on an ACE (acute care for the elderly) unit in
a sub-acute or acute care setting. These specialized units
provide interdisciplinary care to frail elderly patients with
complex medical problems who are at particular risk for complications
during hospitalizations.
Romelia lives with her boyfriend
and has remained close to her parents, two nephews, sister
and brother for many years. She cares for her Mexican-born
mother who speaks Spanish, and who is diabetic and hypertensive.
She tutors her two nephews, ages eight and nine, who are diagnosed
with autism spectrum and learning disorders. When not handling
the medical and educational needs of her close-knit family,
this remarkable lady manages to find the time to take them
on "fun outings." She enjoys conversations with
friends over coffee, going out to dinner, and going fishing
with her boyfriend.
 Shane
M. LaGore MSN, GNP-BC
University of Michigan
Creating Careers graduate
and Michigan native Shane LaGore earned a bachelor's degree
in 1995 as a health science major. Unable to secure a job
in a local long term care facility's rehabilitation department,
he took a job there as a nurse's aide. Although not initially
interested in nursing, he enjoyed caring for the nursing home's
Alzheimer's patients and applying his newly-acquired knowledge
re: disease and pathophysiology. His passion for geriatric
nursing had begun.
In 1995, as assistant recreation
therapy director in a long term care facility, Shane developed
programming for dementia patients that minimized wandering
behavior through reminiscing, singing, dancing and Bible study.
Shane's growing frustration with the routine use of psychotropic
medication to "treat" behavioral disturbances in
his patients led him to nursing school, with the desire to
influence patient care. After earning a BSN in 2002 at the
University of Michigan, he met Dr. Donna Algase, a principle
investigator of wandering behavior, who nominated him for
the Hartford scholarship.
Busy Shane thrived in his full-time
master's program, researching wandering, depression and suicide
in the elderly. He also worked as a staff nurse on a hospital
older-adult stroke unit and as an emergency room nurse; and
with his wife Jennifer, raised their young daughters, Hannah,
Grace and Rachel. After becoming certified as a GNP in 2005,
Shane began work at an outpatient senior health specialty
office. With a geriatrician and three other GNPs, he assesses
and treats elderly patients who've been referred by local
providers and who have geriatric syndromes. He also treats
residents in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and
an adult male foster care.
Although clearly passionate
about geriatric nursing and considering adding more to his
schedule (moon-lighting in geri-psych at facility where he
first provided activity programs), Shane remains completely
devoted to his wife and daughters, always able to find time
for them, sponsor backyard cook-outs and help his wife in
the vegetable garden.
 Alison
Lood, GNP
University of Minnesota
Creating Careers graduate
Ali Lood, who grew up milking cows on a dairy farm in Cambridge,
Minnesota, set her sights on nursing during her earliest childhood
years. Although her siblings pursued careers in business,
she always aspired to follow the example set by her nurse
mother. Ali combined her interests in health care and gerontology
as a nursing home volunteer during high school. She
stayed focused and graduated with a BSN from the University
of Minnesota in 1999.
She then set her sights on the
graduate school of nursing at the University of Minnesota,
which requires applicants to have had at least two years of
nursing experience before consideration for the program.
This pre-requisite “is vital,” Ali explains, as
it “strengthens knowledge of anatomy, physiology and
nursing theory, and provides interdisciplinary team experience.”
Furthermore, her floor nurse experience helped her understand
“that a key part of being a GNP is bridging the hierarchy
between floor nurse and MD. I’ve been there—I
know what nurses are going through.”
Employed by the University of
Minnesota’s Fairview Hospital for the next three years
in ICU and cardiac step-down, she gained valuable experience
nursing an adult urban clientele whose co-morbidities mimicked
those of a purely geriatric pt. load. What a “big
relief” it was to learn of the Hartford funding in 2001,
which enabled her to focus all of her energy on full-time
schooling. She thrived academically during graduate
school, and became “great friends” with three
other Hartford Creating Careers scholars. “We
still rely on each other. We have a wonderful network.”
After graduating in May of 2004
and becoming ANCC-certified as a geriatric nurse practitioner,
she was hired by Fairview Geriatric Services, a collaborative
group that is managed by a nurse practitioner and that employs
16 nurse practitioners. Each is a primary care provider, assigned
to his/her own specific long term care sites and/or transitional
living units. Staff members at these sites rely heavily on
their GNPs.
Fairview maintains ties
to the university and to Hartford, having hired a Creating
Careers graduate each year of the grant. “I absolutely
love my job,” Alison reports. “I have
great personal satisfaction—it makes a difference.”
In her spare time, in addition to riding horses and doing
marathons and triathlons, she owns an apiary in which she
rears honey bees.
 Jessica
Maddox, MSN, CRNP
University of Pennsylvania
“That’s how nerdy
I was,” Creating Careers graduate Jessica Maddox
recalls of her interest at age eight in her family’s
medical encyclopedia. “Nine times out of 10, I
was right!” she proudly recollects of her uncanny early
childhood ability to guess medical diagnoses accurately.
On the nursing track from an early age, Jessica earned a BSN
from Rutgers State University of New Jersey in 2003.
She remembers fondly her first clinical in a nursing home,
“I loved it.” Her preceptor advised
her, “That’s special. Hold onto it.”
During this time period, while caring for her grandmother
who had become septic and delusional from a UTI that had gone
unchecked, she decided unconditionally to pursue gerontology
nursing. “I’m doing this. No one can keep
me from doing it now!”
She qualified
for the Hartford funding and enrolled in Penn’s GNP
program in 2003. As a Hartford student, “I
felt like I had to be the best in the class," she recalls.
She worked three 12-hour night shifts weekly and attended
school full-time. Second semester, she made her first
foray into research by assisting a Hartford pre-doc to develop
and implement a post-fall assessment tool.
After graduating and becoming
ANCC-certified in geriatrics in 2005, she took a job with
Evercare at a nursing home in Philadelphia, doing “all
gero, all day. I am not an acute care person.
I like my patients to be able to talk to me, to be functional.
I like to spend time with them.” Initially, nursing
staff felt threatened by her, a “young, brand-new NP.”
With her people skills, knowledge, education and experience,
she proved herself invaluable to them over the next six months.
“Now everybody loves me,” she reports objectively.
Jessica married in 2006.
She’s considered pursuing a PhD, but fears it will take
away the “hands on” nursing that she cherishes.
She is learning about the DNP option as well. She will
rely on Penn faculty to help guide her. “Penn
is like family. You don’t really ever leave.”
She wants to be “more than a natural leader.
I will never be fully settled until I become a true
leader. My dream job will be caring for the elderly
and helping to shape policy.”
 Ughanmwan
Tokunbor Efeovbokhan, APRN, MSN, GNP
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Creating Careers graduate
“TK” Ughanmwan, was raised in Lagos, Nigeria.
His father, a strong believer in the value of a first-class
education, sent his three children abroad for college. In
1992, as a new high school graduate at just 16 year’s
of age, brave TK traveled alone to San Antonio, with the intent
of attending college to study computer science and architecture.
He became employed as a nurse’s aide to support himself,
but soon became disenchanted with staff interaction. “I
got tired of LVNs talking down to me,” he recalls. So
he decided to become one himself and promptly enrolled in
LVN school, where he concluded that he “loved nursing.”
For seven years, he worked as
a referral nurse for Humana insurance company. He met Tammy,
the woman he would later marry, at a church function. A recipient
of two master’s degrees herself, she would not marry
him until he’d earned a college degree. Determined to
win her favor, TK enrolled in the University of Texas at San
Antonio’s LVN-to-BSN program in 1998.
He jokes that Tammy and his mentor,
UT’s Dr. Kathy Insel “colluded” to push
him to pursue a PhD. He finished his BSN in December of 2001
and started at the University of Texas BSN-to-PhD program
(he took the NCLEX and GRE exams the same month). After attending
a Gerontological Society of America conference and learning
all about research studies with the aging population, he applied
for the Hartford funding at UT and enrolled in their GNP program,
thus pursuing a master’s and PhD simultaneously.
TK’s daughter, Esther Rose
was born in 2003. “I’d get up and study and
feed the baby at the same time. While feeding her, I’d
crank out 2, 3 chapters. I only stopped to burp her.”
By summer of 2005 he had finished his master’s degree
and had become ANCC-certified in gerontology, while working
as an NP in an outpatient gerontology clinic.
He is currently an NP with the
Veteran’s Administration’s extended care and therapy
center. He will complete his PhD in 2008. When queried about
his future, TK spoke of becoming involved in the VA’s
research projects, advancing through its administration, and
spending time with his family. He raced home after his telephone
interview with AACN for a home-based research project with
his daughter--how to make play-dough.
 Karen
Gilbert, ARNP
University of Washington
Creating Careers graduate
and Oregon native Karen Gilbert chose not to pursue her interest
in nursing when she graduated from high school in 1970. "Although
feminism was beginning to take hold, the nursing field was
still too subservient for me." Instead, she and her new
husband moved to Washington and, with "a few chickens
and a little garden to start" became organic farmers,
a pursuit that she loved for 30 years. After her 11-year marriage
ended, she attended Spokane's Intercollegiate Center for Nursing
Education, from which she earned a BSN in 1987. "Nursing
had evolved and was no longer subservient."
Her first nursing job at Virginia
Mason Medical Center in Seattle convinced her that hospital
nursing was not her forte. "Constant multi-tasking was
not a good fit for me. I like nursing one person at a time."
She eventually found her way to Lopez Island, "beautiful
with forests and open fields, environmentally conscious, and
friendly. When you pass another car, you wave." She landed
a job in hospice/home health, and with her new partner, raised
organic lamb, beef and poultry. Eventually she realized that
farming would never generate enough income to fund retirement,
and pursued nursing full-time.
Karen grew tired of arguing with
doctors about how to keep her patients comfortable.
"I wanted to write the orders myself. I wanted to be
an NP." She applied for the Hartford funding offered
through the University of Washington SON. "What a perfect
fit. I'd been taking care of gerontology patients all along!"
She graduated with her MN in 2004, got certified as both a
GNP and ANP, and more recently in oncology. In graduate school,
she "built on the knowledge I already had. I soaked it
up like a sponge."
She works in an oncology
practice that serves a predominantly elderly population in
four small hospital-based clinics. Her position gives her
the precious 1:1 time that defines her. To keep her sanity,
she has her "own spiritual/emotional base." When
not gardening at her home on the island, she's off paddling
her kayak and regenerating her batteries.
 Viet Nguyen
University of Washington
2006 Creating Careers grad Viet Nguyen moved to the United States from her native Vietnam at 13 years of age. With her six siblings and parents, she joined her brother who had already relocated to Seattle, Washington; she graduated from high school in 1995. Although initially interested in becoming a doctor, she soon switched her focus to nursing, earning her BSN in 1999 from Washington State University. Interested in caring for the elderly from a very young age, Viet hopped on the gerontological nursing bandwagon in undergrad, and subsequently qualified for the Hartford GAPN scholarship at the University of Washington in 2004.
Grateful that the funding enabled her to cut back on her four-day-a-week work schedule at Swedish Medical Center, she was able to take advantage of full-time study. Viet became ANCC-certified as an ANP in 2006 and as a GNP in 2008. After graduating from her master’s program, she worked in a nephrology clinic in Burien, Washington where her patient load was 70% elderly. Although she loved her job, she recognized that as a new grad, she needed more mentorship than was offered, so she sought out a better match.
She found it in September of 2008 at an internal medicine clinic in Tacoma, where she is the solo NP. She shares her patients with four other physicians for whom she has great respect and who provide the mentorship she needs. They assess patients with her and/or offer second opinions as needed. She treats “mostly elderly patients, who present with a variety of diseases—hypertension, depression, everything! I am very fortunate to work there. I’m in school again, learning all the time!” She plans to pursue the DNP in two years.
Viet remains active in her local nurse practitioner support group and enjoys socializing with NPs from her graduate program. She has been blessed with a wonderful significant other with whom she shares an interest in medicine. Outside the office her hobbies include camping, engaging in sewing/decoration projects and spending time with her family.
 Summer
Armack, BS-ED, MSN, ANP, GNP
Yale University
Creating Careers graduate
and equestrian Summer Armack attended undergraduate school
in rural Connecticut with a major in biology and an interest
in becoming a large animal veterinarian. However, after
graduating in 2001, Summer changed her career direction--she’d
become disenchanted with the lack of coordinated hospital-based
nursing care her ill grandfather was receiving at that time.
Determined to improve care for elderly patients like him,
this highly motivated and no-nonsense young woman sailed through
admissions and enrolled in Yale University’s Graduate
Entry Pre-specialty in Nursing (GEPN) program. During
her studies, she worked as an R.N. at the Franciscan Home
and Hospice Care, enhancing her love of the geriatric
population.
The three-year full-time course
of study prepared her to become an R.N. with a master’s
in adult and geriatric primary care. Yale had just become
a recipient of the Hartford Creating Careers program,
and Summer was quick to apply for the funds. She describes
the support that she received from the Hartford Foundation
as “huge for me.” Mary Stark Harper’s
lecture at the 2002 HGNI Leadership Conference
was life-changing. Ms. Harper’s speech “was
the most memorable thing I had ever heard.” She
left the Leadership Conference knowing that “I can do
anything!”
After graduation in May of 2005,
she became ANCC-certified as an ANP/GNP. The broad scope
and impact potential of the NP role attracted her. A
strong believer in the Evercare model of care, she landed
her first job with the company. As NP for 85 nursing
home patients, she delivered the kind of comprehensive care
that had never been available to her grandfather. She
had opportunities daily “to get to know my patients
inside and out, to provide early interventions and to prevent
inappropriate hospitalizations.” She was able
to “develop relationships with family members and give
them the kind of support my family desperately needed when
my grandfather was ill.”
Since the summer of 2006 when
promoted to a clinical advisor position, she’s been
carrying ½ of a caseload, training new NPs and creating
professional development materials. She’s also
been the leader of the palliative care team for Evercare
Connecticut—the team provides extra support to
families and fellow NPs re: clinical interventions that
provide maximum quality and comfort at end of life.
Summer married in September of
2007. The newlyweds live on a 30-acre farm in Cheshire,
Connecticut. She is the proud owner of Finn and Prince,
two Canadian Cheval horses, known as the “little iron
horses” in Canada. She and her husband also board
horses, ride “all the time,” and host horse-related
events, “spinning off a nice side business.”
Although passionate about horses, she intends to keep them
as her hobby while she continues her professional development
on the Evercare fast track.
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