Board Member Highlight: Charter Member Yvonne Tumbali on Grace & Belonging

“I love what I’m doing. I love my current role,” says Yvonne Tumbali, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC. “I’m blessed to not only teach future advanced practice registered nurses but also still work as an Adult Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.”

Yvonne is the Director for the Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist Programs at Rush University College of Nursing. She’s also an Assistant Professor in the Adult Health and Gerontological Nursing Department.

Along with her academic role, Yvonne works as a Critical Care Nurse Practitioner in the Intensive Care units (ICUs) at NorthShore University Health System. She is part of the resource team that covers three hospitals within that system. “I love seeing patients. I love the team I work with at NorthShore. It is amazing how much the ICU team has grown from just two APRNs, Dr. Karen Kopan and myself, in the Evanston ICU 24 years ago to more than 20 Advanced Practice Providers today. The other day another Nurse Practitioner mentioned that I am an ‘OG. What is an OG? ‘You are one of the ‘Originals – OG.’ It is pretty amazing! I remember when Karen and I were trying to create and build an Advanced Practice Nurse service in an ICU. Those early days were challenging. It was not easy, but we kept moving forward as we were passionate about our work.”
 

Background

“My mom was a nurse practitioner for 30 plus years at John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) serving the healthcare needs of the residents of Cook County, including the underserved population. She would take me to work, take my hand, and walk around the hospital and Fantus clinic. I sat with the residents waiting for healthcare and observed. That’s where that need—I guess it was soul stirring—came from. I want to help everyone. I want to help people who need help, and I want to be there.”

Yvonne graduated with her BSN from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her first position was in the Cardiac Stepdown Unit at Rush University Medical Center. She eventually moved to the Coronary Intensive Care Unit.

“I just fell in love with cardiology and critical care. During that timeframe I recognized that I wanted to do something else, something more. How do you identify yourself in one word? I used the word hungry. I’m hungry to know what’s next. What else can I learn? What knowledge can I add? So, I moved to the surgical ICU at Rush.”

And then she recognized she wanted to be a Nurse Practitioner like her mother. She received her master’s degree from Rush. Evanston Hospital was her first ICU position. She was precepting students all along the way and fell in love with teaching. Yvonne completed a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree in Systems Leadership from Rush and fueled her passion for teaching.

“When the College of Nursing, my mentors, reached out to me and asked, ‘Do you want to be faculty? Even part time?’ I, of course, said ‘Absolutely!’ But I didn’t want to leave the clinical side. I was full-time clinical and part-time faculty. Eventually, for many reasons, I moved to full-time faculty.”

When the program director, who was Dr. Barbara Hinch, stepped down to pursue other passions of hers in Cardiology and the College of Nursing, Yvonne was asked to step into the role.

“I will say I’m blessed. I’m not only program director, but I’m surrounded by other faculty who are world renowned, who are leaders of many organizations, who have published extensively, and have extensive clinical backgrounds in a variety of specialty areas, including adult health. pediatrics, neonatal, psych mental health, and family. So, we’re sharing ideas and innovative strategies to teach the future.”
 

Leading Change with Grace During Covid

Then the pandemic hit.

“I stepped into the role pre-Covid. Three months into the role, we were in the Covid surge. It was a challenge. It was not an easy task. The positive is that the Rush College of Nursing had already been providing online options for years before the pandemic.”

Still, shifting from a hybrid program to a fully virtual program required a lot of teamwork, careful planning, and innovation. From giving students simulation experience while socially distanced, rotating students in for clinical experiences with preceptors when possible, and when clinical practicum was suspended, offer simulation activities, and recording students performing histories and physical exams virtually—they ensured students got the courses and experience that allowed them to graduate on time.

“We have to understand that this cohort of students is very different from previous cohorts—as they are caring for very sick patients with Covid and trying to complete their doctoral education at the same time. Their lives are forever changed. 

“Now, we as our faculty are even extra more supportive. I like to use the word —and we’ve used this in a couple of meetings—'Grace.’ It’s another layer that we as faculty have to consider when we’re approaching students, when we’re grading them, when they’re in clinical placements. That’s where the grace comes in, in recognizing that they didn’t have the typical educational and clinical experiences I had.
 

Commitment to Social Justice

Innovating for health and safety reasons wasn’t the only program priority during that time.

“In addition to this, we had to strengthen our commitment to social justice and equality, to assess who we are in order to move forward to make transformative change. That was all happening when these students were in our program. How do we talk to our students about that? How do we include that or start talking about it even more on the academic side?

“We as the Rush University College of Nursing updated our mission through this pandemic. We updated our guiding principles. Our mission is to integrate nursing practice, scholarship, and education throughout the diverse communities we serve and to boldly lead healthcare transformation to ensure health equity across the continuum of care. One of our guiding principles is we strive to be an antiracist and multicultural institution, and we aspire to achieve equity and social justice for all members of the College and those we serve.”

“We are more vigilant and more aware. We still have a lot of work to do, but I’m hopeful.
 

ISAPN Educational Programming for All

Yvonne is a charter member of ISAPN and Chair of the Program Committee on the ISAPN board.

“The goal that I shared with the committee is I want to continue the mission of ISAPN and continue to provide diverse topics and diverse educational opportunities. We want everyone—there’s the inclusive piece—to have programs that cover and are diverse enough for all the APRN roles. To not only cover diverse topics to care for our diverse population but for our own community of members of ISAPN.”

“We all want a sense of that belonging. We want to be sure that all APRNs have that feeling of belonging.”

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