Recognizing the Role of Nurses in the Growth of Radiology Services at UCSF

Nurses Week is celebrated here at UC San Francisco and globally from May 6 through May 12, 2021. Over the past year – and more! – UCSF Radiology nurses have been meeting the pandemic's challenges with flexibility, innovation and an extraordinary focus on patient safety. 

Radiology nursing itself is a specialty within nursing. Technology and imaging advances have made radiology a growing field, and with the growth of radiology services here at UCSF, we have added special roles for nurses:

• Nurse practitioners (NPs) are essential to the care of patients having diagnostic and interventional procedures. The role of the NP includes clinical evaluation, intervention, management, and education of the patient. Yawen Yeh, MS, NP, Theresia Soetjipto, NP, MS, Maria-Idalia Lens, DNP, FNP-BC, RN, PHN, and Amber Cravens, RN are NPs in Interventional Radiology (IR). They work under the direct direction of Nicholas Fidelman, MD, interim chief of IR. Daniel Langston, MSN, Eli Chaney, NP and Allison Lamboy, NP are NPs in Neurointerventional Radiology (Neuro IR). They work under the direct direction of Matthew Amans, MD and Steven Hetts, MD, Neuro IR faculty.
• Nurse navigators advocate for patients by helping translate complex medical information and guiding the patient through their clinical appointments in a patient-centered fashion. They educate patients, consult, and coordinate multiple services to streamline the care of the patient. Sueann Mark, MS, PhD, RN, CNS works in the Breast Imaging section under the direction of Bonnie Joe, MD, PhD, section chief. Rebecca Mirro, RN, BSN works in the Molecular Imaging & Therapeutics (MI&T) section with Thomas Hope MD on the Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) for gastrointestinal (GI) cancers program.
• Nurse coordinators prep and screen all patients having biopsies in radiology. Lisa Harris, RN serves this role at UCSF Health – Radiology. The Pediatric Radiology section will be hiring a pediatric nurse coordinator very soon.
• Nurse supervisors serve as clinical leaders overseeing the clinical nurses in the department. Daphne Penaflor, RN, MSN is the nurse supervisor at UCSF Mission Bay IR and was instrumental in opening the Interventional Radiology section at the UCSF Bakar Precision Cancer Medicine Building (PCMB). Michael O'Leary, RN is the nurse supervisor at UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion and Jordan Kaitz, RN is the interim nurse supervisor for pediatric radiology at UCSF Mission Bay.
• Clinical nurses in specialty modalities across the enterprise. We have skilled clinical nurses trained to care for patients in Imaging including Breast Imaging, Interventional Radiology, Neuro Interventional Radiology, Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics (MI&T), Pediatric Radiology, Bronchoscopies/ERCP in Flouroscopy, and procedures in MRI/CT.

Overall, radiology nurses play an important role in patient-centered care along with the radiologist and the radiology technologist. They provide a compassionate, empathetic, and supportive therapeutic environment, and their role in facilitating patient education is essential. We celebrate the gifts that nurses bring to the UC San Francisco Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging this week, 2021 Nurses Week and appreciate their work and dedication all year-round.

By Charlene Fong