Our mission is to provide clinical care, compassionate support, education, and advocacy to optimize the health and wellbeing of people with ostomies in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
My work and lived experience contribute to my full knowledge and appreciation of life with an ostomy. My professional training and skills have equipped me to provide expert, discreet clinical care while my personal journey enables me to offer sensitive, personal attention with deep understanding and compassion.
I am an experienced:
My passion for family-centered nursing was born when I cared for babies and young children as a new graduate. It was while working with little kids that I had my first ostomy care experiences. I watched in awe as children whose health had been compromised by digestive and urinary birth defects could process their fluids and nutrition, ensuring healthy growth and development.
Some of the children I cared for had life-limiting illnesses. While cures were not always possible, we could ensure each child and family received excellent care so they could live every moment as completely and comfortably together as possible.
I also had the privilege of caring for adults with advanced stages of diseases such as digestive and genitourinary cancers and Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS). As their diet, activity, and abilities changed, I worked to help support their changing ostomies and adapt their care needs, too.
While working as a chemotherapy nurse, I had the opportunity to provide extended individualised care; my patients with cancer were often in our infusion center for several hours every couple of weeks. People who had digestive and genitourinary cancers often had ostomies, too. I learned from their stories more about living with cancer, sometimes with an ostomy, and the many ways both had changed their lives.
People with new ostomies often transition from the hospital with support from home health teams. Because our community’s last certified ostomy nurse retired more than a decade ago, I became a resource– I had experience and comfort with ostomy care. I was honored to be invited into the homes of patients with wound and ostomy needs.
As a primary care provider, I see how our local families have limited access to specialty care; this can create a need for extensive travel, limit access, and complicate an already challenging situation. Too often, people with ostomies have gone without a resource or had to drive out of state for care. I wanted to make a difference in my community, so I pursued advanced training through a credentialed COCN program, clinical experience, and board exam certification to ensure my patients received best practice care.
As an instructor at Georgetown University, I am tasked to teach future providers how to care for the whole person–to support disease prevention when possible, early detection when not, and reduce complications when illness exists. I understand that we can do this best when we facilitate a plan with, rather than for, our patients. I strive to apply this philosophy to all of my care; planning for life with an ostomy provides a unique opportunity to partner with my patients on everything from ostomy placement suggestions to supplies that suit them best.
As your ostomy specialist, I bring my extensive involvement with all aspects of ostomy care to you. I recognize and appreciate that people with ostomies have unique needs.
Erika received her Certified Ostomy Care Nurse (COCN) training through Emory University in Atlanta, GA and completed advanced clinical training at University Chicago Medicine under Janice Colwell, RN, MS, CWOCN, FAAN, the past president of the Wound Ostomy Care Nursing (WOCN) Society. There, Erika gained experience in ostomy care across the lifespan in a variety of settings. These included Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) and Adult Intensive Care (ICU) units; trauma and medical/surgical care floors; and outpatient pediatric, adult, and geriatric digestive and urology clinics.
A 1998 graduate of University of Michigan School of Nursing, Erika earned her MS in Advanced Practice Nursing, Family Care specialty designation, from Georgetown University in 2014. She then joined Stevens Hardie Family Practice in Marquette, Michigan, where she enjoys providing multi-generational primary care as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Erika’s passion for advocacy, educating others, and improving access to care extends beyond her home community. In addition to serving her local family practice, Erika also serves as a Clinical Faculty Advisor and Graduate Instructor for Georgetown University’s Nurse Practitioner Program.
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