I have been a certified nurse midwife (CNM) with the School of Nursing practice at Melrose since September 2022. However, my time at Vanderbilt started in 2016 as a
registered nurse (RN) in the cardiology unit in the children’s hospital. In 2017, I transitioned back to my original RN passion in the labor and delivery unit at the adult hospital. Working at Vanderbilt has provided me with wonderful opportunities to learn, grow, and be surrounded by empowering colleagues to push me further with my education. My job as a midwife now involves a mixture of outpatient clinic visits and inpatient labor, delivery, and postpartum care. I can support women with their gynecologic and childbearing needs from adolescence through menopause. I am constantly inspired by the families I serve and feel so honored to walk with them through some of their most vulnerable and memorable life moments.
A challenge in this new role is the complex socioeconomic care that goes into a large portion of our patient population. I am learning so much about resources in our community to help families during difficult financial times and living situations. It is so difficult to know that a patient needs to be seen or needs a certain treatment, but there are barriers to fulfilling this based on financial or transportation limitations. It has been very rewarding to assist these families in overcoming challenges to achieve the health outcomes that they deserve.
An accomplishment that I am proud of is a project I was a part of as an RN that fueled the start of my midwifery education. I was on a committee to reduce the primary cesarean rate in the L&D unit. Over the span of 1-2 years, we were able to bring down our average monthly cesarean rate from about 30% to the mid-20% range through multiple different changes in patient care. My role on the committee was to research how changes in nursing care can influence outcomes. I then developed a training module for all nurses to take when being oriented to the unit which sparked a new passion for comfort measures and labor positioning to help women progress in labor. I learned through this project that midwifery care is a big component in reducing cesarean rates. This was the final thing that pushed me to begin my graduate education. I am so proud to have been a part of this and am thankful to now be in a job that I love even more! I am in the beginning stages of this new career and look forward to the many more opportunities I will have at Vanderbilt in the years to come.
When not at work, I am spending time with my family. I have been married for 8 years and we have 2 young children as well as a dog and a cat. We like to spend time outdoors but when inside, we love watching cooking shows. When I do get alone time, you can find me reading fiction books.
