Nikki Vandecasteele

“I successfully passed my board exam on new years eve and received my state license as a certified nurse midwife today! I will be joining Grand Traverse Womens clinic hopefully in March! I am unfortunately not able to start the clinic in the area I currently work, as I had planned and was led to believe would in fact happen (yet). I will continue to pursue that avenue as I gain experience with an amazing team of physicians, midwives and nurse practitioners in Traverse City. The team I am joining currently does provide treatment for women battling substance dependence in pregnancy so I will get amazing experiences with them. Next step is sitting for my nurse practitioner exam!”

“The past year has been incredible.  I changed jobs in December. I’m now with a HRSA (Health Resources And Services Administration) clinic.  I am still in a rural setting but now have the resources to care for the uninsured and underserved. We offer a sliding scale for visits and medications based on income. COVID19 has created some challenges but we are not seeing the cases the metropolitan areas are seeing. I’m hoping that continues but my fear is the rural communities are simply lagging behind the metropolitan areas.  We are seeing patients via telemedicine which has its own set of challenges. Rural Alabama has internet but many cannot afford it. Many still use flip phones or not at all. In spite of this, we are still managing to deliver quality care to our patients. The community is amazing. I’m so grateful to be here. Thanks for all of your prayers and support.  I think Erin and Ellen are smiling. I like to think so anyway.”

Janet Pouncy, CRNP

Over the past year Courtney Pladsen has worn two hats in Maine. The first as a Nurse Practitioner providing direct care including primary, mental health, and substance use treatment at the Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic in Portland, Maine. The second is as a consultant helping to lead three organizations develop and start the state’s first medical respite program. This program will provide residential medical care for people who are homeless and who are too sick to safely recover on the streets or in a shelter, but no longer require hospital level of care. This program is scheduled to open this fall and will be an important step in addressing a significant unmet need in the community.

In the past year Dr. Pladsen was awarded the United Nation’s Nurses With Global Impact Award for her commitment to working with people experiencing homelessness and addressing unmet social needs in primary care including housing.

She is currently in her third year of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders program and her strategic initiative is focused on improving the continuum of healthcare for people experiencing homelessness in Maine.

In other exciting news Courtney and her husband Matt welcomed their first child Ole Kirk Henry March 2020.

Courtney Pladsen, DNP, FNP-BC, RN | Photo Credit: Nurses With Global Impact, Inc.

In her own words, Janet Pouncy, MSN, RN, CRNP and 2018 ELB Fellow, shares her experiences during her first year as a Fellow and reminds us how Erin’s legacy is at work through people like her.

“It has been over a year since I accepted the honor of becoming a Fellow with the Erin Leigh Boyle Foundation. I started my first job as a nurse practitioner with trepidation. I turned down a higher paying job in an urban neurology clinic to work in a small rural clinic in Alabama that serves a county population of about 13,000 with a median income of $38, 937 and a poverty rate of 17.6%. 20% never finished high school and 16% have a college degree. I was unsure if I was prepared to take on this challenge. Erin would have loved this place and knowing I had the Foundation behind me and the added feeling that I was fulfilling a purpose shared with Erin, I met the challenge head on. I realize now that Georgetown University did a great job of preparing me for this role. Rural medicine is about building trust and forming relationships. I believe I am making a difference. Let me tell you a couple of success stories:

I met a woman who had been coming to the clinic for years and had multiple ER visits for dangerously elevated glucose. My first encounter with her was after an ER visit. She is diabetic and was not taking her medications. She told me she knows she should but is so busy taking care of her grandchildren and her mother that she doesn’t have time to take care of herself. We talked that day for over 30 minutes. I explained my philosophy of practice is like being a marathon runner’s coach. She chooses the race and I simply coach her to run the best race she can run. I told her I wasn’t here to bully her or to scold her for not taking care of herself. I explained the long-term effects of uncontrolled diabetes and how it could impact her ability to continue caring for her family. She returned to the clinic later that week and told me she had thought about it and was ready to make a change. Giving her permission to make her own choices and giving her the responsibility for her health without berating her was all it took. She is doing well. Her blood sugars and hypertension are under control. I am so proud of her! I am now seeing her entire family.

The second story involves a 53 year-old male who came to the clinic as a new patient. He wanted a general check-up because he needed refills on his blood pressure medication. I discovered he had recently lost his job due to cut backs and was suffering from depression. His loss of income was causing a strain on him both financially and psychologically. His normally controlled blood pressure was starting to fluctuate. He was reluctant to start on an antidepressant but agreed to try. I saw him as a follow-up a month later and he was a different person. He told me “you saved my life”. I continue to see him on a regular basis and enjoy hearing about how he started his own business and is thriving. He is still taking the antidepressant and is amazed at how much better he feels.

These are just two of so many stories. It is what makes me get up every day and go to work. It is why I went back to school after 34 years of nursing to earn my nurse practitioner degree. It is also what sometimes keeps me up at night because I am still a novice and don’t always have the right answer immediately. I am so grateful the Erin Leigh Boyle Foundation supports me. The days I struggle or feel discouraged, I remember you had faith in me and invested in my success. It has been an amazing first year! Thank you for your continued interest in my journey.”

Janet Pouncy, our 2018 Fellow, has been hard at work in her community.  Staying true to the mission of the ELB Foundation, she has made a tremendous impact.  Read her update in her own words.

“I am working as a family nurse practitioner in Luverne, Alabama in a rural health clinic.  I am loving rural health!  I am amazed at how different this type of practice is.   The clients are like family to the clinic staff.  Everyone knows everyone.  They share the same schools and churches.  This is a very small, tight community.  This brings its own set of challenges from a health care perspective.  It adds a complexity I had not considered. 

There is so much poverty it is overwhelming.  There is a mix of private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and no insurance.  Private insurance is probably only 10-15% of our clients.  I have to really consider the affordability of the treatment plan, especially referrals and medications.  I learn something new everyday.  I have been there two months and already have enough stories to fill a small book.

I will plan ahead for March and will take time off to join in the fundraising event.  It will be an honor.”

Today, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) made an exciting announcement regarding a new therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the same disease that Erin suffered from.

“Progress in treating AML, one of the most deadly blood cancers, took an important step forward today with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of ivosidenib for patients who have a specific genetic mutation called IDH1.

The approval of this oral, targeted therapy provides a critical new option for AML patients with this particular subtype who have relapsed or did not respond to prior treatment. The IDH1 genetic marker is found in approximately six to 10 percent of the 20,000 people in the U.S. diagnosed with AML each year.

Ivosidenib is the sixth AML therapy approved by the FDA in the past two years, continuing much needed progress for patients who desperately need new treatment options. As a leader in the offensive against AML, LLS played a significant role in helping to advance all of these approved therapies.”

Janet Pouncy, RN, BSN, MA, earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1984. She practiced as an intensive care nurse for three years before joining the Air Force in 1987. She was introduced to oncology nursing in 1989, a specialty she grew to love and practice in for 17 years. Her passion for oncology and compassion for those in need are what drove her to pursue a nurse practitioner degree after retiring from a 30-year Air Force career. She has consistently volunteered throughout her career, including work with the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and a Washington, D.C. organization, the Reading Connection, which encourages disadvantaged children to read.

Janet is passionate about serving the underserved and ensuring they have equal access to consistent, quality medical care. Her vision is to provide “pop up” medical clinics at churches and schools in rural Alabama to bring medical care to rural residents where they gather in an attempt to encourage healthy practices which will impact the burden of obesity and diabetes among this population. She also plans to continue her support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of Erin Leigh Boyle, a kindred spirit, and her father-in-law, Frank Colacicco, who succumbed to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma before she met her husband. She will graduate from Georgetown University in August with a Master in Science degree in Nursing.

Janet grew up in a small town in Alabama with three sisters who she still considers her best friends. She met her husband, Chris Colacicco, while serving in Afghanistan as an Air Force flight nurse in 2002. They married in 2009 and she embraced the role of stepmother to his three daughters. She considers her role as stepmother the greatest challenge and most rewarding role of her life. She values relationships and believes relationships are the key to a fulfilling life.