Spartan Nurse Nation
Spartan Nurses are transforming health care from coast to coast. This series celebrates those who followed their dreams to big cities and are showing that your health is in good hands when a Spartan Nurse is in charge. From the hospital to the Army base, Spartan Nurses are everywhere.
Check back to this page for new stories throughout the fall!
Portland nurse fights for denied patient care
Ronald Harris, BSN '16
Ronald Harris, Jr. is giving the care his patients need … from the fourth floor of his downtown Portland, Oregon apartment. The 2016 BSN graduate serves as a “utilization management nurse” in the Provider Reconsideration department for Providence Health Plan (PHP), the nonprofit insurance arm of Providence Health & Services that is located in 7 states and is one of the larger health systems in the area. Harris uses his nursing background to examine a patient’s case either as a prior authorization (PA) or a claim (services already provided) to advocate for those services that have been previously denied and can be reviewed for an Overturn at the RN level or send to the Medical Director to review.
From East Lansing to Seattle: A nurse’s mission to improve gut health care
Kendra Kamp, PhD '18
Kendra Kamp had a front-row seat to many medical appointments for her husband, as he recovered from an ulcerative colitis diagnosis, commonly referred to as “UC.” As her boyfriend-turned-husband recovered from removal of his entire large intestine, Kamp, a nursing PhD student, noticed there were gaps in the care he was receiving from one of the nation’s top health centers. Now, Kamp is director of the Gastrointestinal (GI) Health and Wellness Lab at the University of Washington, where she looks into UC, inflammatory bowel disezse, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other GI issues.
From Boston to East Lansing, and back again
Bethany Ashworth, MSN '22
The first few weeks of transitioning from a nurse to a nurse practitioner (NP) role can be vexing. The additional responsibilities, increased interactions with other providers and building your own patient list can take their toll.
Thankfully, for Bethany Ashworth, her master’s program at MSU prepared her for her first NP role in Georgia and, currently, in her “dream job” as a perioperative anesthesia NP at Boston Children’s Hospital.