In Her Own Words: New Board Member Alyssa Smolen

In February, we sat down with new board member Alyssa Smolen, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, a primary care provider in Peoria, Illinois. Below is an edited transcription of our conversation.

I knew I wanted to do healthcare, but I didn’t have anyone in my family who was really in healthcare. From watching ER and TV, I was like “oh, I want to be a doctor!” When I was at the University of Iowa, I was in a premed program. I found I did not really like some of the hard sciences as much: organic chemistry, biochemistry. I really liked being with the people and that kind of connection. Even though I was good at the hard sciences, that wasn’t really the part I enjoyed. 

I knew that I wanted to have a family, and I didn’t know if I really wanted to go to med school for, you know, 8 years. I did some shadowing there at the University of Iowa and volunteered in the hospital. Through that I learned that nursing was more the role I wanted to be in—that personal connection and being at the bedside.

I decided to switch to nursing, but at that point I was a junior in college and so it was kind of late to just switch my major right then. I finished out my degree. I met with a career counselor who told me about accelerated BSN programs so that’s when I applied to an accelerated BSN program. I went to Allen College and got my BSN and RN in 15 months. 

From there, I moved back to Iowa City and worked on a general medicine floor for awhile. Then my husband and I moved to Des Moines, and I worked in the ICU for a little over 5 years. When I was in the ICU, I felt like a lot of the patients we saw in the ICU didn’t have to be there, you know. They had things that were exacerbations of chronic problems that either had gone unaddressed or because of socio-economic barriers they didn’t have access, or even just the knowledge to know this was something that needed to be taken care of. I really wanted to go into primary care to keep those people from getting critically ill, from being that sick, to keep them healthier.

So I went back to school. I got my DNP in family practice from Creighton University. When it was time to start looking for jobs, my husband ended up getting a job in Peoria. I had a prospect in Peoria as well, so we moved to Illinois.
  

On Primary Care in a Rural Areas

The thing I like about primary care is that I really get to know my patients and to talk about things repeatedly. It’s not just in and out. I can kind of build a relationship with them, and I think I’ve seen—I’ve been with OSF for a little over a year—shifts in patients’ mindsets, in their habits. I think it really makes a difference. It’s definitely a different pace, but I like that relationship building. 

It’s definitely challenging because a lot of our patients have difficulty with transportation and with finances. It’s challenged me to expand my scope—not outside of what I can do as a nurse practitioner obviously—but within what we can do to really build up some of those skills. 

Being in a rural health clinic in a smaller area means we have the availability to see same-day sick visits or patients that need to get in right away, and I like that. It’s kind of taken a step back to what medicine used to be where you went to your PCP for everything. 
  

On Joining the ISAPN Board

I think being new to the state, I wanted to get involved with the nurse practitioner organization for the state. I had been involved a little bit as a student in the Iowa nurse practitioner association and involved in their conference. 

Honestly, I did not apply to the board initially. I had kind of thought about it but was like “No, I just need to give it some time.” Then I just kept feeling that pull to just give it a try and see what happens. So I did, and I was elected to the board position. 
  

On Legislative Impacts

I’ve learned a lot so far about how the legislative process works and how much the PAC works to really make sure that we are represented in things that go through in a government level. Even just today I had a form come across my desk that was an excuse for jury duty for a patient. It said “Physician,” “Physician name,” “Physician signature,” and how easy it is for people just to use words like “Physician/Doctor” and you don’t think about the fact that when they do that in a legislative bill, that has serious implications and limits what we can and can’t do.

I think that raising awareness of that is important. I think it’s important for nurse practitioners across the state to talk to each other and connect and get to know people. That was kind of my initial reason, but I’ve been really interested to learn more about the legislative part of it, too.

This is all stuff that happens behind the scenes and as an NP you don’t even know it’s happening, especially if you’re not involved. 

I would just like to encourage anyone who isn’t a member of ISAPN to join. If you’re on the fence, just to join and see what we have to offer. Just recognizing that you know, we’re more powerful with more numbers. Membership really does make a difference.