College of Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner Named NAP Distinguished Fellow
The National Academies of Practices (NAP) has designated family nurse practitioner Kathy Wheeler, a faculty member in the UK College of Nursing, a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow. The honor was given during the NAP national conference in April.
Distinguished Public Policy Fellows of the NAP have achieved exemplary careers in their respective health profession and made enduring contributions to public policies influencing health care practice. Nominated by fellow NAP members, fellows are elected for life.
Wheeler has devoted nearly four decades of work toward creating a positive practice environment for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). She was a founding member of the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives, later serving as executive director. Instrumental in obtaining prescriptive authority for APRNs in 1996, she has gone on to secure numerous other legislative and regulatory changes to improve health care delivery in Kentucky.
She has published and presented extensively on numerous policy and practice topics, recently chairing the Health Policy Module Working Group of the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, producing a nationally distributed series of modules to educate nurse practitioners on health policy. As Chair of the International Committee of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) she has worked to educate APRNs on global practice issues.
Wheeler has affected policy through numerous elected or appointed board positions, including her roles as commissioner and secretary of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program; as treasurer, Region 4 director and Kentucky State Representative of the AANP; a member of the Kynect Advisory Board; chair of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools International Subcommittee on Advanced Practice Nursing Professional Nurse Credentials and Standards Committee; a member of the Kentucky Nursing Technical Advisory Committee; and a member of the Kentucky Drug Management Review Advisory Board. Wheeler is certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program.
