Growing up with a disabled brother and a mother who was a nurse gave me an in depth perspective on leadership. I learned from my brother to never give up, no matter how hard the task at hand is and I learned from my mother what a charismatic leader is. Her leadership abilities enabled me to develop a strong sense of commitment, defend equal rights, embrace holistic values, and to strive to reach my fullest potential at all the times. My professional goals echo these attributes and my mission is best stated: To use my expertise in nursing, informatics, education, and effective interdisciplinary and community collaboration to apply and advance knowledge to improve the well-being of human beings and encourage policies that support welfare and improve the health of all people. I have incorporated these goals into my daily professional life and find them to guide me very effectively.
My nursing career has had two phases, the first being an expert clinician in nurse anesthesia and the second being an educator and nurse informaticist. I feel that it is important to describe this transformation as it relates to my professional goals.I started my Registered Nurse (RN) career in 1991 by enrolling in an Associate of Science (AS) in Nursing Program. I noticed a strong affinity to information technology and sciences which I found to be ideal for pursuing the nurse anesthesia specialty. Since it was recommended to cease all work while attending the MSN in anesthesia, I applied for a rather competitive US Navy Reserve stipend. I received the award in 1997 that enabled me to graduate in 1999 and attain the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) certification. While working as a Nurse Anesthetist and becoming an expert clinician in the field, to include solo-practice opportunities with the Indian Health Services and working as an independent CRNA contractor, I realized that my professional potential had not been met. Yes, I was an expert clinician; however, there were so many contemporary developments in the health care system, that I felt that my talents had to be further developed in order to make a difference with an approaching health information technology decade. I wanted to become a part of health policy and find new innovate technologies to advance nursing. That is the beginning of the second phase of my nursing career.
In 2011, I completed graduate work in Biomedical Informatics and obtained the national Registered Health Information Technologist certification in 2013. While teaching as a full-time Health Information Technology instructor at Lake-Sumter State College, I completed the Doctor of Nursing Practice and successfully defended my clinical research project titled "The Effect of Education on Portal Personal Health Record Use". I provided full-time anesthesia services with the US Department of Health and Human Services (Indian Health Services) and had been teaching Graduate Nursing Informatics as an adjunct instructor with Wilkes University for two years when I accepted an Assistant Professor position at Florida Gulf Coast University, where I continued to use my expertise and passion for nurse anesthesia and health information to engage students and promote better patient outcomes through the application of evidence-based care delivery. I continue to follow my goals in my current role as Assistant Professor at Florida Southern College.