Campaign Message
Ericka Brunson-Gillespie DNP, RN, AGACNP-BC is a practicing NP at Michigan Medicine Health System. She is an Adjunct Clinical Faculty member at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. As an active member of AANP, she is an ideal person to serve as a member of the AANP Nomination Council. She has been actively involved in AANP for the last 10 years in a number of ways. Dr. Brunson-Gillespie was a AANP National Conference NP Student assistant and was selected to be the Lead National Conference assistant until 2022, she served as the AANP State Liaison for three terms from 2018 to 2024 and served on the AANP Awards committee from 2022 to 2024. Dr. Brunson-Gillespie attends the AANP conference annually and has presented with some of her colleagues on how to effectively network. It would be an honor to serve on the AANP Nomination Council.
Bio Sketch
Dr. Ericka Brunson-Gillespie is a practicing NP in the Hospital Care at Home Program in a large healthcare system and Adjunct Clinical Instructor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. She was selected by the AANP National Conference Committee to be the lead conference assistant in providing mentoring to other nurse practitioner students on expanding their networking and complex system management navigation skills. Ericka served as the American Association of Nurse Practitioner State Liaison-Michigan for the past 6 years; supporting multiple legislative bills, mentoring nurse practitioners and nurse practitioner students in impactful conversation engagements with legislators; both statewide and nationally in support of improving patient outcomes and was awarded the Michigan New Nurse Practitioner of Year Award in 2019. If elected to the AANP Nomination Council, I would continue to collaborate diligently with the team to develop information for the nomination process and provide a slate of qualified candidates if elected to the Nomination Council. Thank you for the opportunity and it would be an honor if you allow me to serve on the Nomination Council for American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Ericka Brunson-Gillespie DNP, RN, AGACNP-BC Candidate for AANP Nomination Council
Biggest Challenge Facing Nurse Practitioners and How AANP Can Help
One of the biggest challenges facing Nurse Practitioners in the delivery of health care over the next decade is just making the public knowledgeable about what we do every day in our practice. Whenever I m in the general public with clothing on that speaks of NPs , I always get asked what is an NP , I m always surprised how often that question arises. I believe that most persons especially the elderly don t know that we exist and that we could serve their healthcare needs. Many people also have trust issues with physicians from a historical perspective and may not want to then go a step further with a provider that they are unsure of their capabilities. As listed in the strategic plan, to increase general knowledge and public awareness about Nurse Practitioners would be a beginning strategy to help us be better defined in the public eyes. I think that AANP is doing a great job with social media and the advertisements. I would suggest that AANP could advertise with large chain grocery stores mailings and maybe more billboards. Also make sure that the advertisements have diversity and culturally sensitive to educate all the populations that we serve.
Describe, in detail, leadership and other professional skills that you will bring to AANP and provide at least one initiative or outcome that occurred because of these skills.
My leadership style would be considered transformational leadership. As a State Liaison, I led by example to show other NPs and nurse practitioner students on how to meet with their legislators on the hill and attend local coffee hours to advocate for our profession. Most importantly, I encouraged them to look for leadership opportunities in their health care organizations and consider running for elected positions to make an impact in the nurse practitioner profession. I ve been proactively networking and making a substantial impact with nurse practitioner leaders in our community, policy makers and faculty, I m frequently asked to speak at Universities regarding my State Liaison role and discussing my nurse practitioner career, how to network, to share my leadership journey and how they could take the next step to improve health care in our community with leadership positions. Finally, I have mentored, encouraged and inspired multiple NPs that have been elected to local, state and national leadership roles since I have been in leadership with AANP and the Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioner Organization. I take pride in seeing a more diverse nurse practitioner leadership presence locally and nationally since I have been involved in policy.
If Elected, I Propose to Advance the AANP Mission as Follows
I would like to partner with AANP to collaborate to promote diversity within our profession, advocate to remove practice barriers and encourage our legislators to support full practice authority for Nurse Practitioners. The work of education has a pivotal role in nursing. Education is used to promote patient safety, improve patient outcomes and has an impact on the development of guidelines for standards of care. Connecting with AANP and utilizing the resources provided would assist in advancing quality health care for all patients. Increasing general knowledge and public awareness about Nurse Practitioners is one of my focuses, I would like to have NP displays at local churches and grocery stores on the weekends to reach more people. I think that the work that we do during NP week could be carried on throughout the year.