Frontier Nursing University (FNU) joined thousands of nurse-midwives across the country to celebrate National Midwifery Week from Sept. 29 – Oct. 5. FNU hosted its fifth annual virtual event focused on healthcare team communication and perinatal mental health, featuring sessions delivered by nurse-midwifery leaders.
Here’s a recap of the sessions in case you missed them:
Healthcare Team Communication
FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FACNM, FAAN, kicked off the week by hosting her session, “Celebrating National Midwifery Week – Successful Collaboration: Obstetricians and Midwives.”
According to Dr. Stone, the ideal situation occurs when nurse-midwives, obstetricians, nurse practitioners and other healthcare providers work together in collaborative teams. When the best of both professions successfully collaborate together, women and families benefit.
Cathy Collins-Fulea, DNP, CNM, FACNM, an FNU course faculty member, presented a quality improvement project aimed at decreasing the length of stay in an obstetrical triage unit in her session, “We’re All in It Together – Midwives, Nurses and Physicians: A Team Solution for a Team Problem.”
She explained how improved team communication, patient engagement and the use of nurse-driven orders will decrease patient time in triage. This leads to increased satisfaction for both clients and staff.
Nurse-midwives got a free continuing education credit (and still can!) from the session by Audrey Perry, DNP, CNM and Mark Woodland, MS, MD, “Maybe there is an “I” in TEAM”, introducing Interprofessional Education, Collaboration and Service (IPECS) committees as a potential solution to improving team-based care and interprofessional education. They explained how IPECS committees are created and sustained, and they outlined specific interventions that promote a shift from soloist to team-based healthcare culture.
Tonya Nicholson, DNP, CNM, WHNP-BC, CNE, FACNM went live in her session, “I Wanna Be Part of the Team!” to discuss the process of becoming a nurse-midwife and to answer the questions of current and future nurse-midwifery students.
Perinatal Mental Health
Kalena Lanuza, DNP, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, PHN, CLCI gave a powerful presentation on perinatal mental health in her session, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: A Community-Based Approach to Improving Perinatal Mental Health.”
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) occur in up to 20 percent of women during the perinatal period and are one of the leading causes of complications associated with childbearing. Dr. Lanuza explored how empowering women through a shared decision-making process along with community collaboration improves the implementation of effective perinatal mental health practices.
The 2019 virtual event was sponsored by Southern Cross Insurance Solutions. National Midwifery Week was created by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) to celebrate and recognize midwives and midwife-led care. FNU President Dr. Susan Stone is currently serving as president of the ACNM Board of Directors.
To view each of the sessions from FNU’s virtual event, visit FNUDigitalSummit.com/NMW-2019.
FNU students, faculty and alumni who attended were asked to share their favorite memory as a midwife or of FNU, and several memories were displayed at the booth. Another exhibit booth activity was a book signing with FNU Alumna Barbara Anderson for her new book, 
Six students were selected to attend the ACNM Annual Meeting with their expenses covered as part of FNU’s 
along with Tonya Nicholson, Angela Bailey, Jane Houston and Kitty Ernst as they spoke about the passion behind Frontier and the success of 2019 thus far. FNU Preceptors were also recognized during this event for their generous time and support they offer to our students. Attendees enjoyed a time of networking and community during the reception.
Hyden, Ky. 
2018 is wrapping up at Frontier Nursing University (FNU)! From individual student accomplishments to the Versailles campus acquisition, it was truly an exciting year to be part of the FNU community. Below are some of our highlights from 2018. Be sure to watch the “2018 FNU Year in Review” video at the bottom of the post as well.
On October 20, 2018, a melting pot of over 800 newly-minted nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners from 47 states and three countries was charged with improving the landscape of maternity and family care. Each graduate that was 
By: Dr. Susan Stone, Frontier Nursing University President
With the above statistics in mind, it is more important than ever to develop and begin working toward attainable solutions. 
Staff and faculty members at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) recently conducted presentations and workshops on various aspects of midwifery at the 2018 ACNM Midwifery Works Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. on October 11-14, 2018.
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).