Center for Nursing Excellencein Palliative Care‍

Lauren Widman is a first-year MN pathway student from Johns Creek, GA. She received her undergraduate degree in Biology and minor in Spanish from the University of Georgia. While in college, Lauren volunteered in clinical settings and found her passion for medicine when caring for the adult population. Upon graduating, she worked as a medical assistant in orthopedics and no􀆟ced the opportunity for improved preventive and holistic care for adult patients. In this gap, she recognized the connection between patients’ mental health and physical presentations. To learn more about this relationship, Lauren began working at Emory’s Brain Health Center for a neuropsychology clinical research study studying Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, in her personal life, Lauren found herself sitting beside her grandmother as she received an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Her grandmother was confused, and, unfortunately, her provider met her with limited supportive care or education. Lauren continued to see gaps in her grandmother’s care and was able to step in and support her mother, her grandmother’s primary caregiver. She helped her grandmother transition from independent living to assisted living, to memory care, and then to hospice care. These transitions weren’t easy for her family and further highlighted to Lauren how the mental health of the patient and the patient’s family can be highly interrelated with physical disease processes. Today, Lauren aspires to support patients and their families through difficult diagnoses and transitions, just like she was able to with her grandmother. Lauren intends to work as a Nurse Practitioner providing palliative, all-encompassing care for chronically ill adults and their families. She plans to be a provider who recognizes the psychosocial aspects of patients’ situations and integrates these into a tailored, supportive care plan. Ultimately, Lauren aspires to further impact this population by educating providers on how to navigate these life-threatening diagnosis conversations and care transitions.