EVA BARGER

Nurse Practitioner: Adult and Hospice/Palliative Care

*** ******* ****** ********** ** 03102

Cell 603-***-****

e-mail: acpf6m@r.postjobfree.com

Current Employment:

Merrimack Valley Hospice

360 Merrimack Avenue, Lawrence, MA 01843

(May 2014-present)

OVERVIEW OF CURRENT RESPONSIBLITIES:

For Merrimack Valley Hospice and the associated Home Health VNA, in homes, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, and at the 21-bed Merrimack Valley Hospice House,

I undertake and/or direct patient care and consultation services for

a) The Hospice Program

b) The Palliative Care Program.

In these settings, I manage patients’ pain and other physical and psychiatric symptoms, initiate discussions with those who have life-limiting conditions and develop plans of care for them, serve as a consultant to area physicians and facilities needing these services, provide on-call care for approximately 80 seriously-ill patients at a time, in their homes and in the Hospice House, and collaborate with a team of nurses, therapists, and others who work with us to provide those services.

PARTICULAR SKILLS AND PROFICIENCIES:

SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT FOR GRAVELY ILL AND/OR DYING PATIENTS

I have extensive training and experience in managing the symptoms of severely ill or dying patients in hospitals, in their homes, in nursing homes, and in hospice houses, including alleviating pain, dyspnea, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, anxiety, depression, and more.

SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT FOR CHRONICALLY ILL PATIENTS

In addition to providing chronically ill patients with the services just listed, I help them anticipate future health changes and make prudent decisions before crises occur.

HELPING PATIENTS MAKE END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS:

I have a deep knowledge of end-of-life issues (physical, psychological, social, legal, and financial) and over three years’ intense experience acquainting hundreds of patients with them and helping them make prudent, informed decisions about their life-limiting conditions and/or end-of-life concerns, including:

o UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTING THEIR PROGNOSIS:

This is the foundation for prudent end-of-life decisions.

o UNDERSTANDING & DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE CARE PLANS: Choosing curative, aggressive palliative care or hospice-based care.

o UNDERSTANDING & ADOPTING ADVANCED DIRECTIVES, including making decisions about code status, DPOA, living wills, hospice, and related matters.

PAST EXPERIENCE:

Home Health and Hospice Care (HHHC)

7 Executive Park Drive, Merrimack, NH 03054 (July 2011-May 2014)

For Home Health and Hospice Care (HHHC) in Merrimack, NH, at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, at the Hospice House in Merrimack, in local homes, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, and elsewhere, and by means of direct patient care and consultation services, I provided palliative care for symptom management and developed plans of care for hundreds of seriously-ill patients suffering from illnesses ranging from cancer and heart disease to neuro-degenerative diseases and other less common illnesses, with quite a few of those patients afflicted with multiple diseases simultaneously. In that time, among other things, I served as:

o The primary medical provider for HHHC hospice patients under 65 (July-Dec 2012)

o The founding prescriber and sole medical provider of the Advanced Illness Management (AIM) Program of Home Health and Hospice. During my tenure at HHHC, my AIM Program

• Quickly brought under control the manifold distressing and life-limiting symptoms of about 50% of its patients, discharging them to hospice care.

• Successfully treated about 25% more of these patients, discharging them from our home palliative care program with their symptoms well-managed.

o One day a week for five months, I was HHHC’s sole prescriber, simultaneously covering all hospital consults, on-call hospice needs, and all palliative care services.

I was also the sole prescriber for patients under 65 at HHHC’s hospice house and I conducted all of HHHC’s palliative care hospital consults.

• I have:

o Provided palliative advice and/or services to approximately 100 New England area physicians, including PCPs and specialists in pulmonology, cardiology, oncology, geriatric psychiatry, and other fields, plus directors of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, coordinating care and providing clinical assessment and recommendations.

o Provided palliative medical services at the following NH facilities: Catholic Medical Center, Bel Air Nursing Home, Courville at Nashua, Fairview Nursing Home, Hillsborough County Nursing Home, Hospice House of HHHC, Langdon Place, Laurel Center, Mt. Carmel Nursing Home, Nashua Crossings, Ridgewood Center, Southern NH Medical Center, St. Teresa Nursing Home, Villa Crest Nursing Home, as well as a score of similar facilities in Massachusetts.

o Worked closely with the Palliative Care Team at Massachusetts General Hospital.

o Worked with physicians at the New England Heart Institute at Catholic Medical Center to create new ways to provide home care to their heart patients.

o Forged for HHHC strong working relationships with many community physicians, confirming in the minds of many the value of the then-new AIM Program for themselves and their patients, while overcoming the reluctance of other physicians to entrust their patients’ care to the new program. (Some physicians sought me out by name.)

o Drafted for HHHC a detailed analysis of the AIM Program, assessing its strengths and weaknesses while identifying ways to strengthen it while increasing its profitability and providing better care to patients in the program.

• I have conducted over 1,600 patient visits, including, approximately:

o 1,350+ in-home palliative care consults (averaging 2 hours each) and follow-up visits.

o 200+ in-hospital palliative care hospital consults (averaging 2-3 hours each).

o 150+ face-to-face interviews for recertification of current hospice patients (averaging half-an-hour each).

• I have initiated and conducted approximately

o 1,200+ discussions with terminally-ill patients covering their prognosis, goals of care, medical plan of care (curative vs. aggressive, palliative vs. hospice), advanced directives (including code status, POLST, living wills, and DPOAs).

o 700+ discussions with patients, family members, and health care providers about Hospice Eligibility Requirements.

AS THE SOLE PRESCRIBER IN THE HHHC ADVANCED ILLNESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM, I PROVIDED:

o PRESCRIBER SERVICES: I guided and/or provided all prescriber-level AIM Program medical services, working closely with area medical facilities, physicians, home health nurses, and other medical personnel to provide better post-hospitalization care for their patients, thereby reducing needless patient suffering and reducing the number of relapses and hospital readmissions.

o ADVANCED ILLNESS TEAM OVERSIGHT: I was the sole provider of medical oversight for the AIM Team, which, in addition to me, consisted of one team leader, four registered nurses, two social workers, and, as needed, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and LNAs. Together, we regularly cared for 25 patients in

the AIM Program, plus others with chronic symptom management needs.

o IN-HOUSE EDUCATION: Formally and informally within HHHC, I provided on-going education about the nature, criteria, and benefits of palliative care in general and the AIM Program in particular.

o COMMUNITY EDUCATION: Formally and informally within the local medical community, I provided on-going education about the nature, criteria, and benefits to patients and physicians of palliative care in general and the AIM Program in particular, and worked to generate goodwill for both services by caring well for those patients enrolled in them.

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS:

Hospice and Palliative Care APRN (Certified by the HPNA) Dec 2015 exp.

APRN License (NH) Dec 2016 exp.

APRN License (MA) Dec 2016 exp.

Adult Nurse Practitioner (Certified by the ANCC) June 2016 exp.

Licensed in NH & MA

PAST STAFF PRIVILEGES:

Catholic Medical Center Manchester, NH

Southern New Hampshire Medical Center Nashua, NH

Ridgewood Nursing Center Bedford, NH

PARTICULAR PROFICIENCIES RELATED TO MEDICAL PRACTICES:

• PALLIATIVE-CARE SPECIFIC BILLING: trained in palliative care billing, coding, and documentation with more than three years’ experience in each.

• EPIC, ALLSCRIPTS, and SUNRISE proficient.

LECTURES GIVEN:

“Palliative care for medical/surgical patients” Catholic Medical Center Fall 2011

“Palliative care for elderly patients” Hillsborough County Nursing Home Fall 2011

“Palliative care for heart failure patients” Catholic Medical Center Dec 2012

“What is palliative care?” Home Health & Hospice Care Smr 2012

MAJOR CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION:

19th International Congress on Palliative Care Montreal, Canada Oct 2012

17th Conf on Supportive Care, Hospice, & Palliative Medicine, Houston, TX Oct 2013

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS:

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners

American Nurses Association

Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association

International Association for Hospice/Palliative Care

NH Hospice & Palliative Care Organization

New Hampshire Nurses Association

Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society

NURSING EXPERIENCE:

REGISTERED NURSE, medical/surgical floor 2007-2010

Elliot Hospital, Manchester, NH

Cared for acutely-ill and post-surgical patients

with high acuity levels, with an emphasis on neurology,

telemetry, nephrology, and trauma patients.

EDUCATION AND DEGREES:

MSN in ADULT HEALTH/PALLIATIVE CARE (GPA 3.8)

Boston College, Connell School of Nursing, Chestnut Hill, MA May 2011

AA in NURSING

NH Community Technical College, Manchester, NH June 2007

BA in LIBERAL ARTS

Magdalen College, Bedford, NH May 1984

REFERENCES:

Available by request

Contact this candidate