Nurse Practitioner Awarded Prestigious AANP Fellowship

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - Oct. 7, 2014 - PRLog -- The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) recently announced that it has inducted Margaret (Peg) O’Donnell, DNPs, FNP, ANP, B-C, FAANP, as a Fellow of the association.  Just 485 of the more than 189,000 nurse practitioners in the US are recognized Fellows of the AANP.

Established by the AANP in 2000, the Fellows of the AANP (FAANP) impact national and global health and enhance the mission of the AANP by engaging recognized nurse practitioner (NP) leaders who make outstanding contributions to clinical practice, research, education, or policy.  In addition to hosting invitational Think Tanks and an intensive Mentorship Program, FAANP is dedicated to strategizing about the future of nurse practitioners and health care outside the confines of traditional thinking.

A resident of Baldwin, Ms. O’Donnell is a primary care provider and preceptor, providing comprehensive health care at South Nassau Communities Hospital (located in Oceanside, NY), where she became one of  the first NPs named to its medical staff.  She serves as Senior NP at South Nassau and organized its Advanced Practice Nurses Innovative Care Committee, which engages in peer review, case presentations, strategic planning, and coordinating efforts between inpatient and outpatient services.

The New York State representative of the AANP, Ms. O’Donnell has served in numerous leadership roles for the AANP, Nurse Practitioners Association of New York (NPANY) and Nurse Practitioners Association of Long Island (NPALI), most notably in grassroots efforts to effect policy changes affecting NP practice.  As a result of her steadfast leadership, she is a recipient of the NPALI NP of the Year Award and AANP New York State NP Advocate Award.

Ms. O’Donnell has been a healthcare provider for more than 30 years.  She started her career as an RN in 1981, and has served at some of the Northeast’s most prestigious hospitals including the Hospital for Joint Diseases in Manhattan; Long Island Jewish-North Shore University Healthcare System; and University of Massachusetts Medical Center.  Ms. O’Donnell has extensive experience in many disciplines including emergency services, intensive care, stem cell transplantation, and electrophysiology.  She was also involved in clinical research trials at South Nassau. She is currently a doctoral student at SUNY Stony Brook.

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who are prepared, through advanced education and clinical training, to provide a wide range of preventive and acute health care services to individuals of all ages.  NPs complete graduate-level education preparation that leads to a master’s degree/and are often Doctoral-trained. NPs take health histories and provide complete physical examinations; diagnose and treat most common acute and chronic problems; interpret laboratory results and X-rays; prescribe and manage medications and other therapies; provide health teaching and supportive counseling with an emphasis on prevention of illness and health maintenance; and refer patients to other health professionals as needed.

The AANP is the largest professional membership organization for nurse practitioners (NPs) of all specialties. It represents the interests of over 189,000 NPs, including more than 50,000 individual members and 203 organizations, providing a unified networking platform and advocating for their role as providers of high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive, patient-centered and personalized health care. The organization provides legislative leadership at the local, state and national levels, advancing health policy; promoting excellence in practice, education and research; and establishing standards that best serve NP patients and other health care consumers.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.  In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.  In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.