Alexa Colgrove Curtis, PhD, MPH, FNP, PMHNP is the subject of a feature article and wide-ranging interview posted online by the University of San Francisco, where she is assistant dean of graduate nursing, professor and MPH-DNP dual degree director.
Curtis was the 2020 winner of the CANP Bridging Health Care Needs Award and serves as co-chair of the CANP Health Policy and Practice Committee. Her work with underserved populations and youth in rural Northern California and her advocacy on behalf of California NPs was featured in an article in Connections in October of last year.
In the USF interview, Curtis delves into the extensive National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity” report, which called for the removal of barriers to practice to help meet the health care needs of communities. She goes on to discuss the more recent National Academy of Sciences (formerly the Institute of Medicine) interprofessional report, which recommended that NPs be allowed to work to the full scope of their education and training and cited the continued need to remove barriers to this progress.
As a CANP champion in the fight for AB 890, the bill signed by Governor Newsom in 2020 to allow NPs to practice independently, Curtis continues to advocate for the bill’s full implementation so that California NPs can better meet community needs cited in the national reports. She talks about the importance of remaining focused on the mission to overcome persistent obstacles.
“We are framing barriers as challenges that can be handled with collaboration and persistence,” she told USF. “Staying mission-centered to the driver of being a nurse and care for people and populations, we are doing extremely meaningful and needed work. However, while being mission-centered, we also have to be margin and policy-savvy.”
Curtis also described the conceptual models that guide her work, including the social-ecological model while working in rural communities. This involves looking at the individual, their interactions, their communities and the possibilities and barriers that exist within the institution and policies that help shape care for the population. Working with youth, she said, she works from the theory that human beings can change throughout their life span and have reserved the capacity to meet challenges and be resilient, which can in turn allow them to actualize their potential.
A practicing nurse, educator, and advocate, she told USF that all these roles are essential to making an impact as a nurse practitioner.
“I always want to be effective and then be more effective… Nurse practitioners are truly mission-centered and want to meet a need and address the gaps in the community. It is inspiring to work with future leaders in health care.”