Anne Summach, MN, NP

Area of Study / Keywords

Older adults healthy aging social prescribing NP profession NP leadership

About

My clinical experience has included time in Adult Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Neurosciences, and Older Adult Medicine. It was my pleasure to direct an NP led clinic for older adults at Sage Seniors Association between 2018 and 2021. This inter professional clinic incorporated pharmacy, physiotherapy, social work, recreational programming and mental health therapy. The endeavor was inspiring and a pleasure to participate in.

Academically I began teaching in the Faculty of Nursing in 2018 and currently serve as the Director of NP Programs, teaching various courses across the curriculum and working on development of a new NP-specific degree and post-master's certificate.

Research

Research involvement has been in partnership with Sage Seniors Association and Healthcare Excellence Canada. Our team adapted a Virtual Frailty Screen (based on the Clinical Frailty Scale) to identify older adults at risk of or with moderate frailty and developed and validated the Healthy Aging Asset Index based on the WHO's Determinants of Healthy Aging. The tool is ideally used to facilitate development of a functional improvement plan. Community connectors/link workers conducted the geriatric assessments and suggested a combination of social and medical prescriptions to help address areas of support need on the assessment.

Additionally, our follow up projected included collaborative work with Athabasca University and Sage Seniors Association to establish a Regional Centre for Healthy Aging, a project funded by the Canadian Frailty Network and the Max Bell Foundation.

Teaching

I currently teach Advanced Pathophysiology, Advanced Health Assessment, and a combination of clinical management and consolidated NP practicum courses.

NURS 509 - Advanced Pathophysiology

The focus of this course is on in-depth knowledge of advanced pathophysiology relating to common variations in health across the lifespan. Students will gain an understanding of applied pathophysiology related to specific health problems in acute, chronic, and acute on chronic health conditions. Opportunities to discuss concepts and application of these to advanced clinical practice as it relates to diagnostic reasoning will be provided through seminars discussion. Clinical simulation will be used to augment learning.

NURS 533 - Consolidated Clinical Practicum I

The focus of this course is to provide a consolidated practicum experience in the role of the advanced practice nurse. By the end of this course students must practice progressively towards entry to practice nurse practitioner competencies. Prerequisite: NURS 532.

NURS 534 - Consolidated Clinical Practicum II

The focus of this course is to provide a consolidated practicum experience in the role of the advanced practice nurse. By the end of this course students must practice at the entry to practice level for expected graduate nurse practitioner competencies. Prerequisite: NURS 533.

Browse more courses taught by Anne Summach