Every year, National Nurse Practitioner Week is celebrated the second week of November to honor nurse practitioners (NPs) nationwide for their fundamental and versatile roles on patient care teams as primary care providers, counselors, health educators, and highly trained nurses who make diagnoses and write prescriptions. ​​​On anesthesia care teams, an NP provides pre- and post-operative care to patients, among other clinical duties he/she takes on within an anesthesiology department or healthcare system.

For 2023 National Nurse Practitioner Week, UNC Anesthesiology honors the department’s five nurse practitioners who are key providers on multiple department clinical teams. In 2018, Renee Rosiek was one of two Pre-Care Clinic NPs when this team won a UNC Health “Carolina Care Top Achiever Award” for providing an outstanding patient experience.  In 2020, Renee and fellow Pre-care NP Raquel Rey contributed over eight months to the hospital medical team staffing UNC Hospitals’ Occupational Health Services (OHS) COVID-19 call center. At the pandemic’s earliest stage, Renee and Raquel redeployed and dedicated 50% of their scheduled duty to the call center.  As members of the medical review team, they provided exposure assessment, testing need based on symptoms, follow-up, reassurance, and clinical advice related to COVID-19 by phone to UNC Hospitals personnel.

UNC Anesthesiology recognizes five additional NPs who bring high-level nursing skills to anesthesia care in other department clinical divisions: Ashley King and Joelle Lane (Pediatric Anesthesiology), Jamie Thompson (Pain Medicine), and Christinna Haire and Bethany Pierson (CVTICU).

Thanking our five NPs for all you both do for patients and colleagues at UNC Anesthesiology and UNC Medical Center!