As a health care provider in Washington, D.C., which has the highest rate of kidney disease in the country, Nancy Uhland, DNP ’18, is leveraging her education to better serve patients.
Her work, which focuses on kidney disease and hypertension, is paying off. After winning the American Association of Kidney Patients’ Medal of Excellence in February, she graduated from GW Nursing with a Doctor of Nursing Practice in May. This fall, she began GW Nursing’s graduate certificate in Health Policy and Media Engagement.
Dr. Uhland was inspired by family friends to become a nurse, so she went to nursing school before working in a nursing home and later the ER at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. Before deciding to continue her education with a master’s, Dr. Uhland took an internship at GW Hospital and has been there since 2008 as an interventional radiology nurse. While earning her master’s, Dr. Uhland entered the field of kidney health with a focus on donors.
“I was learning this whole new field of nursing. I was talking to healthy people who were donating kidneys, and trying to predict whether they would stay healthy in the future,” she said.
Initially aiming to work at the GW Transplant Institute, she started working in GW’s Medical Faculty Associates Department of General Internal Medicine before moving on to the Division of Kidney Disease and Hypertension.
“I want to tie the health care work I’ve done into health care policy for our kidney population and link that to policies that are in need of change or improvement,” Dr. Uhland said.
“D.C. has the highest rate of kidney disease in the country. We have a population that needs better education and better access in terms of insurance so that people can get appropriate preventative care,” she said.
The Health Policy and Media Engagement certificate is a natural extension of her interests. “Here’s a program that wants to teach how to engage others, contribute to policy making and be mindful of what you’re saying. It wants to give you the appropriate tools to impact policy, especially here in D.C.,” she said. “It’s silly not to take advantage of making an impact on policy when you live right here.”