At the Heart of Health Care: Nurse Practitioners
“The best part about being a nurse practitioner is connecting with patients,” says Stacy Wong, an Interventional Radiology nurse practitioner (NP) at UCSF Mount Zion. “There is no better feeling in the world when a patient comes back to visit you and they are thriving, healthy, and happy.”
In diagnostic and interventional radiology, nine nurse practitioners play a vital role in caring for patients: Stacy Wong, Amber Cravens, Yawen Yeh, Eli Chaney and Theresia Soetjipto in Interventional Radiology (IR), Shaadi Settecase, Allison Lamboy, and Daniel Langston in Neuroendovascular Surgery (NES), and Rachelle Saelee in Molecular Imaging & Therapeutics. In partnership with radiologists and technologists, NPs provide exceptional care, compassion, and support to our patients.
Patient-Centered Care
“I love how technology has advanced, enabling us to make a significant impact on people’s lives through minimally invasive procedures,” says Amber Cravens, who has pursued her passion for patient care for more than 16 years in interventional radiology.
Improving health, one patient at a time, is what it’s all about for Daniel Langston, an NP at the Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Center of Excellence. A patient was able to do yoga for the first time after a successful response to a monoclonal antibody drug (antineoplastic) that stopped nosebleeds, and told Langston, ‘I finally feel like a normal human being.’
“That’s the goal of my work every day – to help people achieve their best health so they can strive to be their best self and live for their highest good,” says Langston, who is also trained as a clinical nurse specialist. His love of perioperative care was a natural fit for neurointerventional radiology, and today he enjoys working alongside Steven Hetts, MD and Miles Conrad, MD, and Patient Care Coordinator Torianna Lomax Truong.
Allison Lamboy is an NP at the Pulsatile Tinnitus Clinic within the Neuroendovascular Surgery service.
“As a nurse practitioner, I enjoy building meaningful relationships with patients, applying my advanced knowledge in an otherwise underserved population, and witnessing and contributing to their progress firsthand,” she says.
A Unique Perspective
Nurse practitioners bring a unique perspective to patient care because of their professional experience both as a nurse and as a clinical provider, explains Eli Chaney – it’s one of the reasons she loves being a nurse practitioner.
“Having a background as an RN means that we bring heart and holistic perspective to the patient care experience and can help our busy surgeon colleagues to see the bigger psychosocial picture of our patients’ lives,” says Chaney.
Shaadi Settecase, an NP in Neuroendovascular Surgery, earned her master's degree in nursing at UCSF. She shares a particularly memorable moment from nursing school, when she learned a pivotal lesson in her career, that nurses are not born, they are made:
From clinical provider, to mentor and educator, Yawen Yeh, a nurse practitioner at UCSF for over 20 years, enjoys the many facets of her role.
“It’s an honor to work with my IR family and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams on a daily basis,” she says. “I am grateful for the growth and development opportunities I have experienced as an NP at UCSF!"