Jill Kinch, MSN, APN, advanced practice nurse team manager for Perioperative and Procedural Services at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been appointed president of the Tennessee Nurses Association (TNA).
In this position, Kinch will advocate for more than 83,000 registered nurses throughout the state regarding topics such as workplace violence against health care providers and nurse scope of practice legislation.
“Nurses like Jill are advocates at the bedside on interdisciplinary teams, in our community and throughout our state,” said Marilyn Dubree, MSN, R.N., executive chief nursing officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Her work at Vanderbilt and her work in this role for TNA is about improving outcomes and doing what’s best for patients and their families.”
Kinch is a board-certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in both primary and acute care and has practiced in the tertiary care setting for more than 10 years.
She leads advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the ambulatory and acute care setting, coordinating delivery of high quality, safe and efficient care.
Her role includes directing family-centered and developmentally-focused patient care to provide excellence in nursing service for infants, children and families.
Kinch founded the Tennessee Chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) and served as the past president of the chapter. She continues to serve on the executive board and as legislative chair.
She was named VUMC Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year in 2012.
Her work has focused on creating safe, efficient and caring protocols for children undergoing procedural sedation and creating systems to support complex, individualized coordination of care for children. She has presented on practice innovations at NAPNAP’s 33rd Annual Conference and at the TNA Convention.
“The TNA’s work focuses on improving health care outcomes for Tennessee citizens. This includes advocating to improve access to preventive health care resources,” Kinch said. “Nurses are proud to be part of the solution, providing access to valuable, high quality care. Legislators want to understand the complexities of our health care system in order to make the right choices.
“My goal is to partner with them as a trusted resource to clarify policy, regulatory requirements and to explain the challenges of our health care environment.”
Kinch points out that it’s a team effort. “We have amazing, educated Vanderbilt leaders that have been resources to me in this new role like Laura Beth Brown, Susan Hernandez, and Clare Thomson-Smith, who are guiding and mentoring me.”
