Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
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- About APRNs
- Advancing Nursing Clinical Practice
- CV APP Fellowship
- Contributions of Advanced Practice Nurses
About APRNs
At UW Medical Center, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses play an important role in fulfilling our mission to improve the health of the public. APRNs have a critical role in care delivery across the enterprise, from providing direct patient care and improving health outcomes for our patients and families to collaborating on teaching and research projects throughout the organization. Seen as a critical element in the professional development pathways for our nurses, advanced practice nursing leadership encourages the development of our nurse practice in a variety of ways.
Advanced practice nurses serve in many leadership roles. Laurie Soine, ARNP, PhD, is the Director of Advance Practice Nursing at UW Medical Center as well as the Chief ARNP. Laurie is a valued member of the leadership team and sits on leadership committees that guide everything from practice development to financial management. Laurie collaborates with Leah Yoke, PA-C, who serves in the role of Chief Physician Assistant. Together Laurie and Leah work across the organization creating professional structures to support the 600+ Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) practicing across UWMC. Laurie and Leah likewise represent APPs at the Medical Leadership Committee and the Medical Staff Advisory Council. They also co-chair the Advanced Practice Advisory Council that this year sponsored an .
Advancing Nursing Clinical Practice
Since 1999, UWMC has supported the work to address professional practice challenges faced by Nurse Practitioners through the formation of a practice council. In fulfillment of its most recent charter, the Advanced Practice Nursing Council (APNC) meets monthly and includes ARNPs from across the organization. Led by co-chairs Jennifer Beckman, MSN, ARNP, CHFN, and Nancy Colobong Smith, MN, ARNP, CNN, the work of the Council focuses on education, role development and promotion, professional practice, and research.
The APNC also promotes collaborative practice models to support inter-professional work throughout the medical center, focusing on helping the medical center achieve its goals in patient experience, quality, staff engagement and fiscal responsibility. This Council has provided monthly education sessions for our ARNPs.
Here are last year’s speakers:
- September 2020 | Cheri Constantino-Shor RN, MSN presented “Joy in the Workplace” - Cheri speaks extensively both locally and national to audiences of health care workers, her presentations are engaging and heart-warming.
- October 2020 | Marie Cockerham MN, RN, CCRN presented “Behavior Health Impacts and CARE4U” - Marie is the CARE4U Staff Support Specialist and speaks extensively across our organization to audiences about caring for the caregiver.
- November 2020 | Dr. Seth Cohen, UWMC’s Director of Infection Prevention - Dr. Cohen shared timely update on COVID-19.
CV APP Fellowship
Council members have continued to work with the UW School of Nursing faculty to facilitate student placement for our UW expanding DNP Program. The APNC has also supports UWMC’s ARNP Cardiovascular Fellowship program. The Fellowship program provides a 12-month post-licensure experience for newly graduated ARNPs interested in building upon their clinical cardiovascular skills.
UWMC welcomed its sixth cohort of Cardiovascular APP Fellows. The UW CV APP Fellowship program is designed to deliver a comprehensive program that promotes the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors needed to deliver safe, quality patient care that meets the standards of practice at UWMC.
The year-long fellowship provides in-depth training across the continuum of cardiovascular disease. This is an opportunity for newly graduated or early career APPs to develop their career as an APP in an environment of collegiality, respect and team values. The fellowship is dedicated to each of the two fellows personal success and provides the resources, time, mentorship and career guidance necessary for them to accomplish their goals as they grow along with colleagues in Divisions of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery.
The fellowship committee is composed of several ARNPs and PAs who have designed the curriculum. Throughout the fellowship, Laurie Soine, Ph.D., ARNP and Jenn Peterson, DNP, ARNP serve as fellowship mentors; meeting with the fellows on a monthly basis, assisting with rotations and available as clinical content experts.
2020/2021 CV APP Fellowship Recipients
During the fellowship year, the fellows are members of multiple inter-professional inpatient and outpatient teams that include attending physicians, cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery fellows, clinical pharmacologists, residents, advanced practice providers, and nurses in providing direct patient care to inpatient and outpatients at UWMC. They are responsible for providing care independently and collaboratively with other team members to patients across the continuum of cardiovascular care. Our 2020-2021 fellows are Stacy Sanders and Leslie Ma.
Contributions of Advanced Practice Nurses
During the pandemic, the contribution of our advance practice nurses was pivotal to the successful response of the clinic. Advance practices nurses accomplishments during this historically unprecedented time include:
- Supporting colleagues and modeling best practice behavior by holding well-being events and identifying peer to peer volunteers.
- Developing policy and procedures for safe vaccination process
- Countless hours serving as volunteer vaccinators
Over the past year our 15 Clinical Nurse Specialists took on far-reaching leadership roles and demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to UWMC and the broader community in response to the Covid pandemic, setting up and staffing the vaccine clinics and supporting colleagues through incredibly challenging times.
Coronavirus Crisis: Snapshot of Seattle
"Gayle Wiley is a critical care nurse practitioner at University of Washington Medical Center. She finds herself, like so many Americans, isolated from things that used to give meaning to her life outside of work..."
--Grant Hindsley, Rolling Stone, April 8, 2020