At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of faculty, students, alumni and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) student Jason Hone, BSN, RN is answering the call to advocate for future patients, influencing the reform of a major healthcare legislation in his home state of Utah.
Until March 6, 2019, Utah state law required newly graduated Nurse Practitioners (NPs) to maintain Consultation & Referral (C&R) agreements with physicians for two years or 2,000 hours, whichever came first. Utah physicians had been collecting up to $22,000 per year from new NPs with no requirement for follow-ups on their end.
After learning of these requirements through research done during his NP700, “Role of the Nurse Practitioner” course at FNU, Jason, a Utah Nurse Practitioners (UNP) scholarship recipient, was invited to participate in a UNP luncheon. The luncheon’s goal was to bring legislative representatives on board with UNP’s mission of changing the C&R laws through the passing of bill HB336.
Jason was deeply impacted by this meeting and further calls to action from the UNP legislative chair. He took action, contacting two powerful lobbyist/activist groups in his area: Libertas and the Sutherland Institute. After explaining UNP’s position and petitioning their support, both influential groups were inspired to back Jason and UNP publicly on HB336, despite strong opposition from the Utah Medical Association (UMA), which threatened to kill the bill should it make it to the Senate.
Kirt Larson, MSN, FNP-C, Jason’s future preceptor, shared his frustration at the C&R legislation’s negative impact on him. Because his small practice could not find a physician willing to accept less than $500 per month for a C&R agreement, Kirt was unable to afford to hire a recent graduate he had trained.
Jason Hone helping at the FNU exhibit booth at the National Student Nurses Association convention in Salt Lake City
When HB336 made it to the legislative floor for the vote, UMA resisted the arguments made by UNP. Jason told Kirt’s story to the UNP legislative chair and it was used in the official rebuttal to force UMA into negotiations.
The agreement reached by UMA, UNP and the bill sponsor removed the C&R requirement for almost all new graduates with a couple of reasonable exceptions. UMA offered no resistance as HB336 made its way through subsequent votes and was eventually ratified on March 6.
After the bill passed, Jason received kind words from UNP legislative chair Dr. Beth Luthy, FNP. She was amazed at the amount of support he was able to raise and ensured him that his efforts made a big impact on the favorable outcome.
“For me, it was a matter of simply talking to people. Regardless of position or title, people are people,” Jason said.
“As nurses, we talk to new patients, their families and other medical professionals every day. Taking action to improve the practice environment for NPs is just another way of advocating for future patients. We should not be afraid to talk to anyone when it comes to advocating for our profession, for our patients, or to educate, empower or improve our communities.”
Jason has already secured the support of Libertas and the Sutherland Institute for next year’s legislative plans. He is excited to continue the work of advocating for nurses and patients.
“This has been an amazing and rewarding experience. One voice can make a difference! I hope other students realize what kind of a difference they can each make by just talking to people,” Jason said.
Jason will begin clinicals this summer as he works toward his Family Nurse Practitioner master’s degree as a member of FNU Class 166.
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
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).