Amy Velasquez
November 2023
Amy
Velasquez
,
MSN, RN
Palliative Care
The University of Kansas Health System
Kansas City
,
KS
United States
In the throes of treatment for hematologic malignancy and transplant/post-transplant complications, her assessments have always been sharp, balancing her 20+ years of nursing disease-focused knowledge with her expertise in palliative care to provide compassionate, patient-centered, high-quality care.
When I was hired for my position, I was set up for a video call with Amy Velasquez, who was going to be my preceptor. We met over video, and I couldn't believe anyone was that enthusiastic about having to teach me everything about being a palliative care nurse coordinator at KU. I thought that surely no one is that positive and happy all the time.
On my first day, I was so nervous. Amy met me and took me up to the outpatient palliative care nurse's office. From minute one, she put me at ease, made me feel welcome, was endlessly understanding and patient. More than that, she was interested in me as a person, my story, why I went into palliative care and what my life outside work had been all about. She was interested in me as a person and values me as a team member, even though I hadn't done anything to prove myself other than accepting the job. She showed me the ropes, but I also learned just as much by watching her example. She treated everyone the same way she treated me. Even before she became our supervisor, she led by example and with heart. She cares about everyone, how our patient load is, not just the numbers, but the heavy things we deal with in palliative care.
Setting up a new clinic is no easy thing, but Amy has done it before. She started outpatient palliative care at KU, along with Dr. Karin Porter-Williamson. Before we were a department, it was just the two of them, figuring out how to build this program. She has been central to each step along the way, from bringing in new nurses, to forging relationships with the clinics with whom we partner. In starting my new clinics, she protected me from overstepping and putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, making sure the foundations were in place and setting boundaries when they needed to be set, so that I was set up for success from the start. From setting up meetings to get schedule templates made, to making introductions to my partnering providers and the providers, nurses, and support staff in other clinics. Amy didn't just tell me what to do, she was there doing it with me, all while continuing to do her own clinics and support her own patients. And all of this before she was my supervisor. She has been a staunch advocate for us to have our own department. Now we do. Crunched numbers so that we could have more nurses. Now we do. Amy is a born leader, perhaps most so because she doesn't view herself that way. She just IS that way, not just leading, but supporting and encouraging as well.
***
Amy Velasquez's passion for palliative care birthed our outpatient palliative care department at KU. At every step of the journey, Amy has her focus laser-set on our patients. She keeps a positive (but realistic) and compassionate attitude even through multiple tough conversations each week, such as helping a patient make a smooth transition to hospice, or trouble-shooting substance use disorder in a patient who needs pain control. I've even known her to sit and talk and bring peace to an actively dying patient who somehow made it to clinic that day.
As a Nurse Leader, she has excelled at running our outpatient department. It was a new role in our group, and she has made the transition feel seamless. We trust her and her vision and insight. It is amazing to work on process improvement with her, she sees things from so many angles. I honestly have no idea how we could ever function without her outstanding leadership.
***
Amy Velasquez is new to a formal nurse leader role but has been performing as a nurse leader for years. I'm fortunate to work in the Outpatient Palliative Care department under Amy's supervision. The creation of this department in the outpatient setting was spearheaded by Amy over a decade ago. She saw a need and took the lead on getting the need met. Since that time, she has grown professionally along with the department, always pushing the envelope, and learning new things. As the department's new Nursing Supervisor, she has needed to hit the ground running and she's done it with humor, grace, and humility. She brings issues to the nursing group for brainstorming and problem-solving but is still ultimately able to make the final decisions and manage any fallout. She is creating her role as she is performing it and is confident enough to use mentors and other resources at her disposal to help her succeed. Amy is quick to give praise and share the successes and our team is so lucky to get to work with and for her.
***
Amy has been the pioneer for the outpatient palliative care team. She started with a vision over 10 years ago. She was the only nurse leading the team. She did not stop there. She now leads 6 nurses, supporting us in daily functions, scheduling matrix updates, and the list goes on. She has been an amazing leader. She has really grown in her leadership role. She continues to be a forward thinker as we explore the needs of many patients with serious illnesses. Patients are always at the forefront of her mind. Amy is a joy to work with.
***
From the beginning of the palliative care clinic at The University of Kansas Health System, Amy Velasquez, MSN has strived to ensure evidence-based palliative care is being delivered to those in need. In 2011, while working as an outpatient bone marrow transplant (BMT) nurse, Amy recognized that patients needed specialty palliative care in addition to groundbreaking disease-focused treatments. Whether it was complex symptom control, or in-depth conversations about goals of care, she saw an unmet need for patients and families. She reached out to Karin Porter-Williamson, the division director of Palliative Medicine. From Dr. PorterWilliamson: "Amy cold-called me and told me she knew her patients needed us; that the BMT team could be providing better care if we were there too. She was determined to make that happen. That conversation was the start of our outpatient palliative oncology program. We saw our first patient together a few days later." From there, Amy and Dr. Porter-Williamson secured buy-in from BMT leadership in the cancer center and outlined a plan to shift her role to palliative care nursing and spearhead growth of the palliative oncology program. 11 years later, the clinic completes over 2400 visits, serving over 1000 patients and families in our cancer center yearly. Like a sponge, Amy learned quickly from working closely with palliative care physicians, nurses, and social workers. She attended the January 2012 ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium), becoming a certified ELNEC trainer to jumpstart her clinic work with the confidence she was applying evidence-based knowledge. She quickly began to lead critical conversations on her own with patients and families using the core communication skills of palliative care. In the throes of treatment for hematologic malignancy and transplant/post-transplant complications, her assessments have always been sharp, balancing her 20+ years of nursing disease-focused knowledge with her expertise in palliative care to provide compassionate, patient-centered, high-quality care.
Amy also began teaching other cancer center nurses about palliative care and was influential in recruiting nurses with prior oncology experience to become palliative care nurses. Amy completed two literature reviews for internal discussion, highlighting the gaps and potential for the palliative care clinic to grow. She presented at the KUMC Nursing Grand Rounds in 2012, kicking off the inaugural ELNEC course at KU alongside other ELNEC champions she connected with. The ELNEC course is still being taught in part due to her leadership through the years. Her poster presentation at the 2012 Nursing Research Symposium about developing the clinic was awarded best Quality Improvement Poster.
Amy continues her dedication to high-quality palliative care, recently focusing on patients with substance use disorder, ensuring our clinic provides safe and patient-centered care. She has spearheaded the implementation of standardized assessments like the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Opioid Risk Tool, ECOG functional status and Palliative Performance Status. Recognizing that data was fundamental to improving care and sustaining growth, she initiated data collection on the patient panel from the very start. This has facilitated numerous palliative care quality improvement projects.
***
I have known Amy for a few months since I started my position as RN Care Coordinator, but in that time, I have learned and grown as a nurse as a result of the strong leadership from Amy. Amy started the outpatient palliative care program after seeing a need in the BMT clinic. She knew the health system could do better by these patients, and she advocated continuously until a program was established. She has continued to put her heart and soul into growing the program so that throughout the health system, there will be care for those facing serious illness. Amy works collaboratively with members of the palliative care team and other medical teams to further the care of patients. Her spirit and love for palliative care is infectious. She strives to be her truest self and always keeps what is best for patients and families at the heart of everything she does.
On my first day, I was so nervous. Amy met me and took me up to the outpatient palliative care nurse's office. From minute one, she put me at ease, made me feel welcome, was endlessly understanding and patient. More than that, she was interested in me as a person, my story, why I went into palliative care and what my life outside work had been all about. She was interested in me as a person and values me as a team member, even though I hadn't done anything to prove myself other than accepting the job. She showed me the ropes, but I also learned just as much by watching her example. She treated everyone the same way she treated me. Even before she became our supervisor, she led by example and with heart. She cares about everyone, how our patient load is, not just the numbers, but the heavy things we deal with in palliative care.
Setting up a new clinic is no easy thing, but Amy has done it before. She started outpatient palliative care at KU, along with Dr. Karin Porter-Williamson. Before we were a department, it was just the two of them, figuring out how to build this program. She has been central to each step along the way, from bringing in new nurses, to forging relationships with the clinics with whom we partner. In starting my new clinics, she protected me from overstepping and putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, making sure the foundations were in place and setting boundaries when they needed to be set, so that I was set up for success from the start. From setting up meetings to get schedule templates made, to making introductions to my partnering providers and the providers, nurses, and support staff in other clinics. Amy didn't just tell me what to do, she was there doing it with me, all while continuing to do her own clinics and support her own patients. And all of this before she was my supervisor. She has been a staunch advocate for us to have our own department. Now we do. Crunched numbers so that we could have more nurses. Now we do. Amy is a born leader, perhaps most so because she doesn't view herself that way. She just IS that way, not just leading, but supporting and encouraging as well.
***
Amy Velasquez's passion for palliative care birthed our outpatient palliative care department at KU. At every step of the journey, Amy has her focus laser-set on our patients. She keeps a positive (but realistic) and compassionate attitude even through multiple tough conversations each week, such as helping a patient make a smooth transition to hospice, or trouble-shooting substance use disorder in a patient who needs pain control. I've even known her to sit and talk and bring peace to an actively dying patient who somehow made it to clinic that day.
As a Nurse Leader, she has excelled at running our outpatient department. It was a new role in our group, and she has made the transition feel seamless. We trust her and her vision and insight. It is amazing to work on process improvement with her, she sees things from so many angles. I honestly have no idea how we could ever function without her outstanding leadership.
***
Amy Velasquez is new to a formal nurse leader role but has been performing as a nurse leader for years. I'm fortunate to work in the Outpatient Palliative Care department under Amy's supervision. The creation of this department in the outpatient setting was spearheaded by Amy over a decade ago. She saw a need and took the lead on getting the need met. Since that time, she has grown professionally along with the department, always pushing the envelope, and learning new things. As the department's new Nursing Supervisor, she has needed to hit the ground running and she's done it with humor, grace, and humility. She brings issues to the nursing group for brainstorming and problem-solving but is still ultimately able to make the final decisions and manage any fallout. She is creating her role as she is performing it and is confident enough to use mentors and other resources at her disposal to help her succeed. Amy is quick to give praise and share the successes and our team is so lucky to get to work with and for her.
***
Amy has been the pioneer for the outpatient palliative care team. She started with a vision over 10 years ago. She was the only nurse leading the team. She did not stop there. She now leads 6 nurses, supporting us in daily functions, scheduling matrix updates, and the list goes on. She has been an amazing leader. She has really grown in her leadership role. She continues to be a forward thinker as we explore the needs of many patients with serious illnesses. Patients are always at the forefront of her mind. Amy is a joy to work with.
***
From the beginning of the palliative care clinic at The University of Kansas Health System, Amy Velasquez, MSN has strived to ensure evidence-based palliative care is being delivered to those in need. In 2011, while working as an outpatient bone marrow transplant (BMT) nurse, Amy recognized that patients needed specialty palliative care in addition to groundbreaking disease-focused treatments. Whether it was complex symptom control, or in-depth conversations about goals of care, she saw an unmet need for patients and families. She reached out to Karin Porter-Williamson, the division director of Palliative Medicine. From Dr. PorterWilliamson: "Amy cold-called me and told me she knew her patients needed us; that the BMT team could be providing better care if we were there too. She was determined to make that happen. That conversation was the start of our outpatient palliative oncology program. We saw our first patient together a few days later." From there, Amy and Dr. Porter-Williamson secured buy-in from BMT leadership in the cancer center and outlined a plan to shift her role to palliative care nursing and spearhead growth of the palliative oncology program. 11 years later, the clinic completes over 2400 visits, serving over 1000 patients and families in our cancer center yearly. Like a sponge, Amy learned quickly from working closely with palliative care physicians, nurses, and social workers. She attended the January 2012 ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium), becoming a certified ELNEC trainer to jumpstart her clinic work with the confidence she was applying evidence-based knowledge. She quickly began to lead critical conversations on her own with patients and families using the core communication skills of palliative care. In the throes of treatment for hematologic malignancy and transplant/post-transplant complications, her assessments have always been sharp, balancing her 20+ years of nursing disease-focused knowledge with her expertise in palliative care to provide compassionate, patient-centered, high-quality care.
Amy also began teaching other cancer center nurses about palliative care and was influential in recruiting nurses with prior oncology experience to become palliative care nurses. Amy completed two literature reviews for internal discussion, highlighting the gaps and potential for the palliative care clinic to grow. She presented at the KUMC Nursing Grand Rounds in 2012, kicking off the inaugural ELNEC course at KU alongside other ELNEC champions she connected with. The ELNEC course is still being taught in part due to her leadership through the years. Her poster presentation at the 2012 Nursing Research Symposium about developing the clinic was awarded best Quality Improvement Poster.
Amy continues her dedication to high-quality palliative care, recently focusing on patients with substance use disorder, ensuring our clinic provides safe and patient-centered care. She has spearheaded the implementation of standardized assessments like the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Opioid Risk Tool, ECOG functional status and Palliative Performance Status. Recognizing that data was fundamental to improving care and sustaining growth, she initiated data collection on the patient panel from the very start. This has facilitated numerous palliative care quality improvement projects.
***
I have known Amy for a few months since I started my position as RN Care Coordinator, but in that time, I have learned and grown as a nurse as a result of the strong leadership from Amy. Amy started the outpatient palliative care program after seeing a need in the BMT clinic. She knew the health system could do better by these patients, and she advocated continuously until a program was established. She has continued to put her heart and soul into growing the program so that throughout the health system, there will be care for those facing serious illness. Amy works collaboratively with members of the palliative care team and other medical teams to further the care of patients. Her spirit and love for palliative care is infectious. She strives to be her truest self and always keeps what is best for patients and families at the heart of everything she does.