Health Care Leaders Earn Statewide Accolades

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Leading health care providers Jill Olmstead, Sandra Bresnahan and Sigalit Marmorstein were honored by their peers with awards presented during the California Association for Nurse Practitioners 35th Annual Educational Conference, held March 22-25 in Indian Wells. Olmstead received CANP’s 2012 Nurse Practitioner of Distinction award, while Bresnahan and Marmorstein were named co-recipients of the Bridging Health Care Needs honor.

Olmstead is certified as an Adult NP and has been practicing in gastroenterology for the past 15 years. Currently, she works at St. Jude Heritage Health Foundation performing screening and diagnostic flexible sigmoidoscopies, assessing, diagnosing, and managing pathology findings. A past President of CANP, She has also chaired the Practice Committee for the American College of Nurse Practitioners, and currently is serving as President of this powerful national NP organization.

She was honored not only in recognition of her stellar leadership qualities in her involvement with NP organizations and the medical community, but also for her commitment to mentoring many state and national leaders in the profession.

“Jill’s passion and involvement in NP activities has truly helped shape some of the profession’s goals and accomplishments, both statewide and nationally,” said CANP President-Elect Beth Haney.

In addition to her position as an Acute Care NP with the Veterans Administration Healthcare System in West Los Angeles, Bresnahan travels all over the world on volunteer medical missions with the Global Health force. She has used her nurse practitioner skills to serve rural villages and underserved urban populations in India, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and Haiti. The award recognizes that she has selflessly volunteered her time and energies to local, national and international efforts, extending her clinical expertise as a nurse practitioner and limitless energy to caring for the underserved and disparate populations internationally and in the U.S.

Marmorstein is currently the Chief Nurse Practitioner for Emergency Room Services at Verdugo Hills Hospital. In 2003, she established an NP-run tier triage unit at the hospital that now serves more than 5,000 patients each year, many from vulnerable populations. As part of this endeavor, she established all policies, competency and training protocols, in the process taking great strides to advance the role of NPs. As a leader in advancing nurse practitioner education, she also serves as an adjunct faculty member at West Coast University in Irvine, where she has developed curriculum for several courses, while also mentoring and teaching nurse practitioner students through preceptorship programs she helped establish.

The Nurse Practitioner of Distinction Award specifically recognizes a CANP member who demonstrates excellence in furthering the nurse practitioner role either in legislative efforts or clinical application. The intention is to confer the highest recognition for an NP – to be recognized for excellence by their colleagues. Other 2012 nominees were Barbara Lome, Barbara J. Ritter, Debra Palmer, Donna Emanuele, Elaine Go, Jeanne Parafan, Karen Ayers, Sherrie Gould, Jo Loomis and Katherine Ware.

The Bridging Health Care Needs Award recognizes nurse practitioners who are active as a catalyst for positive change in the health care system and who demonstrate the value of the care nurse practitioners provide to their patients. Other 2012 nominees included Bonnie Cegles, Catherin Olivolo, Cecily D. Cosby, Kathleen Wood, and Laura Rodriguez.

CANP is the voice for more than 16,000 nurse practitioners in the Golden State, uniting nurse practitioners in an exchange of ideas, practice advice and development of professional assets while working to advance the nurse practitioner profession statewide.