Janice Macopson, FNP-C, DNP, has worked in healthcare for longer than many Frontier Nursing University (FNU) students have been alive.
For 44 years, Janice has worked in various positions at Carolinas Healthcare System – Blue Ridge, an Atrium Health Hospital in Morganton, N.C. She became a nurse practitioner (NP) in 2001 and began her work at Blue Ridge Cardiology in 2011.
Janice graduated from FNU in June 2019 as a member of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) class 30. Obtaining her DNP had been a bucket list item for years. She and a friend who was also interested in getting her DNP got together to research potential schools.
“My friend told me about this amazing school in Kentucky. I did some research for myself and read about Mary Breckinridge, and I was just taken in. Coming from rural North Carolina and working with women and children, I felt it was ideal – a perfect match for me.”
After being accepted into FNU’s DNP program, Janice read the required Wide Neighborhoods, Mary Breckinridge’s biography. “I could not put the book down,” she said. “I felt like I was in the trenches with her. It’s almost mystical, when you have a passion for nursing, to read about how passionate she was.”
As a member of a minority population, Janice was also appreciative of FNU’s emphasis on diversity. “I am an African American and I have been very impressed by how hard the school works on inclusion and diversity,” she said.
In her current position at Blue Ridge Cardiology, Janice sees adults with coronary artery disease, cardiac illnesses, and other conditions that put them at high risk for heart failure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes and hypertension.
Janice knows firsthand how difficult it is for diagnosed heart failure patients to understand and manage their condition, so for her DNP project, she implemented the Get With the Guidelines – Heart Failure program into her practice. An American Heart Association program, Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure is an in-hospital program that promotes consistent adherence to the latest scientific treatment guidelines and has shown success in achieving significant patient outcome improvements.
Janice teamed up with the quality improvement committee at Carolinas Healthcare System – Blue Ridge to implement chart audits and analyze what they could improve upon using the Get With The Guidelines measures. She has been able to take what she learned into Blue Ridge Cardiology and continue to utilize the information she gathered during her project.
Janice’s continuity advisor Khara Jefferson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, played a major role in Janice’s DNP project. “My weakness was the Internet, YouTube and online classes… it was a challenge for me. Khara was always available to me, answered all my calls and calmly helped me through my planning phase. She was especially patient when it came to helping me through presentations and other things online.”
We are proud of Janice’s commitment to life-long learning! We’re thankful for her efforts to continually improve herself and her practice to offer the highest quality of care.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).