Congratulations, it is an Honor to Feature
Terry Thompson, ACNP, FHM
Associate Director of Advanced Practice Providers, Riverside Medical Group; Director of Riverside Medical Group Fellowships
As a hospital-based Nurse Practitioner (NP), Terry Thompson’s greatest joy is easing anxiety for patients and their families in a high-adrenaline environment. Another joy is helping fellow Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) succeed.
During her six years as Associate Director of APPs for Riverside, Thompson has guided the development of standardized onboarding plans for NPs, Physician Assistants and Nurse Midwives, which facilitate a successful transition to practice.
Thompson also implemented new leadership roles with Lead APPs to promote expert peer input and worked with an integrated team of clinicians to develop the region’s first APP Critical Care Fellowship, set to enroll its second fellow this fall.
“My goals for APPs are to be able to work at the very top of their licenses, and for physicians to feel confident about their competence and capability,” says Thompson, also Director of Riverside Medical Group (RMG) Fellowships. A constant advocate for APP development, she feels “transparency benefits everyone about our roles and potential contributions.”
Thompson’s position is split between her administrative duties and a 21-year clinical career in Hospital Medicine at Riverside Regional Medical Center (RRMC). She is proud to be recognized as a Fellow in Hospital Medicine through the Society of Hospital Medicine. In total, she has worked for Riverside for 41 years, starting as a Registered Nurse at RRMC in 1983 and continuously growing and developing new programs and ideas.
“Working primarily in the ED doing hospital admissions, I’m never meeting patients on their best days,” she notes. “When they know I’m listening to them and we have a care plan in place, I see such a change in their faces.”
As one of RMG’s earliest NPs, Thompson has watched the number of APPs climb from about 40 to 270 over the past 20 years; today, they are critical components of every service line.
Thompson’s other leadership accomplishments include serving as an elected member of the Riverside Medical Group Board of Directors, organizing annual CME conferences and serving on Riverside’s APP committee since its 2011 launch.
Thompson began dreaming of a health care career around age 10, when her father, a paramedic in Danville, Va., took her on calls. “I’d go to sleep with my clothes and shoes laid out beside my bed,” she recalls. “I watched my dad start IVs, get people out of wrecked cars and bandage wounds. I saw how much he helped people and was fascinated.”
After earning a BSN from Radford University, Thompson spent two years as a Critical Care nurse at Radford Community Hospital before her husband’s NASA job brought them to Hampton Roads. Her Riverside clinical career spans: Hemodialysis, Cardiothoracic Surgery/MICU, Critical Care Educator and Manager of the Coronary Care unit.
When Virginia Commonwealth University began offering the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner tract, Thompson knew that was the NP role meant for her. Graduating in 1998, she joined an RRMC-based Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Group and, in 2003, became the first NP with RMG’s Hospital Medicine program.
“Not many of us were rounding then, and our medical colleagues weren’t quite sure how to incorporate our skillset to meet their patients’ needs,” she recalls. “That conversation is still continuing, but things have changed so much.”
A mother of two grown daughters, one a critical care nurse and the other in marketing, Thompson unwinds by doing watersports and stained-glass artwork. Her ongoing mission is promoting the utilization of APPs.
“Even if we had enough physicians to go around, one provider can’t do everything for patients anymore,” she says. “We can’t offer quality care without teamwork and collaboration. I’m very proud of the role of the APP in patient care.”
