Leadership in Action: Alumni, Faculty, Staff and Student Milestones

Faculty and Staff Awards, Nursing Leaders

Oct. 24, 2016

By Diana Austin

PhD Student Laurie Bauer on the Primary Care Workforce and NPs in NEJM

In a perspective published in the September 15, 2016, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Laurie Bauer, a second-year doctoral student in the UC San Francisco School of Nursing’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and her co-author, UCSF Professor of Medicine Thomas Bodenheimer, make the case that the shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S., combined with rising rates of chronic disease in the population, is driving the development of new roles for nurse practitioners, physician assistants and RNs.

Bauer and Bodenheimer write that, despite some obstacles, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are likely to play an increasingly important role in providing primary care in the U.S., including managing patients with chronic disease, leading complex care management teams and coordinating care between the primary care home and other health care providers, while RNs may take on more responsibilities as care managers.

Chelsea Landolin Receives Grant to Advance Interprofessional Education

The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (NCIPE) has announced that Chelsea Landolin, assistant clinical professor in the UC San Francisco School of Nursing’s Department of Community Health Systems (CHS), and Carmen Portillo, chair of CHS, have been selected for an Accelerating Interprofessional Community-Based Education and Practice program grant. Funding for the NCIPE grant has been provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Landolin and Portillo’s innovative project will partner second-year students from the School of Nursing’s Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program with fourth-year students from the UCSF School of Pharmacy in a variety of learning activities and environments designed to increase cross-disciplinary collaboration and communication between PMHNPs and psychiatric clinical pharmacists.

The ultimate aim of the project is to help address shortages in the mental health and psychiatric workforce by capitalizing on the combined strengths of PMHNPs and clinical pharmacists to increase capacity and access to care.

Community-based organizations, including Alameda County’s Bonita House and Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (ACBHCS), will provide interprofessional clinical training opportunities for the students, who will be overseen by pairs of preceptors from the schools of nursing and pharmacy.

The NCIPE grant provides $50,000 over two years, matched by equal funding from the UCSF School of Nursing. Landolin and Portillo’s co-investigators are Rosalind De Lisser (from CHS), the School of Pharmacy’s Patrick Finley and clinical pharmacists Seth Gomez and Charles Raynor (from ACBHCS).

Leslie Dubbin Named Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leader

Assistant Adjunct Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences Leslie Dubbin has been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to join its first group of Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

Dubbin, chief program integration officer for ambulatory care for the San Francisco Health Network, and partners Irene Yen, UCSF associate professor of medicine and epidemiology & biostatistics, and Susan Neufeld, senior vice president of BRIDGE Housing, are among 15 three-person teams selected to conduct action-oriented, equity-focused health research to improve community health. They will be investigating the impacts of public housing renovation on the health and social well-being of public housing residents in San Francisco.

The Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program, led by the University of Minnesota, is designed to develop the next generation of leader scholars, and brings together diverse pairs of mid-career researchers from different disciplines with community members to collaborate on projects designed to address multifactorial challenges that affect the health of communities. During the three-year program, each team will receive leadership training, mentoring and networking opportunities, in addition to up to $350,000 to support their research project.

Kathryn Johnson Receives APNA Award for Leadership

Kathryn Johnson, associate professor of Community Health Systems, has received the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA)’s 2016 Award for Excellence in Leadership.

Johnson, a psychiatric nurse practitioner who treats adolescents and adults in her Santa Cruz practice, is being recognized for her work as a mentor, teacher and leader in psychiatric nursing. She has served in a variety of positions at APNA, including president of the California Chapter Board of Directors, co-chair of the APNA Council, member of the Education Council and member of the Buprenorphine Committee.

UConn School of Nursing Honors Alumna and Nurse Educator Patricia Jackson Allen

The University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Nursing has given its Beverly Koerner Outstanding Alumni Award for Education in Nursing to Patricia Jackson Allen (MS ’69) for her decades of service and contributions to the education of nurses. Jackson Allen received her bachelor’s degree from UConn in 1967, and two years later went on to receive her master’s from the UC San Francisco School of Nursing, where she later served as director of the School’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program.

Jackson Allen, who also headed the Yale School of Nursing’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Specialty, is an internationally recognized scholar on the primary care needs of children with chronic health conditions, and is the co-editor of Primary Care of the Child with a Chronic Condition, now in its fifth edition.

In 2015, she received the UC San Francisco School of Nursing’s Jane Norbeck Distinguished Alumni Award.