Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation

Scholarships & Awards

Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation/Pfizer Community Innovations Award Recipients 2008-2009

Audrey Darville, MSN, ARNP—is currently enrolled in the PhD program in nursing at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Audrey is the lead professional serving Hope Clinic and Pharmacy, a free clinic for the uninsured in central Kentucky. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will be used to fund a nurse case manager at Hope Clinic, who will link patients to available services within the community, improve patient knowledge of appropriate health care utilization, follow-up on chronic conditions and promote proactive behaviors. An analysis of the case manager's effectiveness over two years will provide data to obtain further funding to continue the case manager position for this community clinic.

Michele Bunker-Alberts, MS, FNP, IBCLC—is an experienced NP and lactation consultant at the Alameda County Medical Center (California). She not only provides a full range of inpatient and outpatient services in pediatrics and women's health, but also has established a lactation program, breastfeeding education and support services for practitioners, and a clinic-based pediatric obesity-prevention program. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will be used to train volunteers as lactation consultants for the low-income women who make up the majority of the community the clinic serves. The consultants will encourage and teach breast-feeding to these women to provide their children with all the benefits derived from breast-feeding, such as lower rates of obesity and childhood illnesses.

Nancy Wolf, PMHNP, FNP—is currently enrolled in the DNP program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. She is a part-time Adjunct Professor, Mental Health section, for the University of Northern B.C., Prince George, Canada in the distant-learning program for FNP students. Also, she is the Medical Supervisor for the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Adult Jail in Bend, Oregon. She supervises five RNs and one Mental Health Therapist. Nancy serves in the roles of both a Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner to incarcerated clients. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will be used to educate the correctional staff in mental health and addiction/detox methods, train the medical staff in mental health issues, and educate her clients in successful withdrawal methods so that they may be active participants in their own care and recovery.

Norah Johnson, MSN, CPNP—is currently enrolled in the doctoral program at Marquette University College of Nursing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Norah is the Clinical Nurse Specialist in Education at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will provide funding for research that will be used to gain a better understanding of the relationship of parenting stress and family functioning to health related quality of life for parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The funds will be used for data analysis and dissemination of research findings.

Catherine Harris, MSN, CRNP, CNRN—is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an Adjunct Faculty at Jefferson College of Nursing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and practices as an NP with Jefferson University Physicians. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will provide partial support for an educational health intervention to improve the psychological care of individuals who have suffered from an aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). The project includes a patient-oriented informational website, monthly workshops, and development of community-based support groups. The purpose of the project is to help people with aSAH understand their condition and to assist them in reconstructing their lives.

Susan Harrington, MS, APRN, ANP—practices as an Adult NP at Emerald Physicians, Inc., supervising the other NPs, recruiting and orienting new NPs, and managing chronic and acute problems. Susan also is currently enrolled in the DNP program at Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will fund a mentoring program to train and retain NPs as primary care providers within the community. The mentoring curriculum will be based on the core competencies set by NONPF.

Marie Bakitas, DNSc, ARNP, FAAN, AOCN—is an Assistant Professor, Departments of Medicine and Anesthesiology, Dartmouth Medical School and a researcher/clinician (Adult Nurse Practitioner) with the Palliative Care Consultation Service, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), Lebanon, New Hampshire. Her research focuses on improving quality of life and quality of care for people with lifelimiting illnesses by introducing principles of decision science and palliative care early on and throughout the course of the illness. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will fund data clean-up (de-identification of previously gathered data) and analysis regarding decision-making for women with metastatic breast cancer. This project will identify patients' decision-making needs and create targeted decision support resources for these women.

Janet Dutcher, MS, NNP—is currently enrolled in the DNP program at the University of Minnesota. Janet practices as a neonatal nurse practitioner at Avera Mckennan Hospital and University System. She specializes in perinatal and neonatal palliative care. The NPHF/Pfizer Community Innovations Award will provide support for implementation of a perinatal/neonatal palliative care consult team that will meet with families who have received an adverse diagnosis. The team will educate the family on the baby's diagnosis, guide the family through decisionmaking, and help them create a culturally sensitive birth plan that meets their specific needs and honors their preferences. The team will connect the family to appropriate resources.