Gerontology Specialty Practice Group
Engage, Learn, Network and Progress Practice in Gerontology
The Gerontology Specialty Practice Group (SPG) offers a unique opportunity to interactively collaborate with colleagues who share interest or clinical expertise in gerontology. As an SPG member, you’ll have access to a cutting-edge, online forum where you can engage in discussions, document sharing and knowledge exchange with fellow NPs. Come learn, share and help progress the development of theory and practice in gerontology.
A Message From the Gerontology SPG Co-chairs
I feel privileged and honored to be serving in the role as the co-chair for the new AANP Community-Gerontology Specialty Practice Group (SPG). I currently practice in an urban family practice clinic that is owned by CommonSpirit Health in Lexington, Kentucky. This clinic is an outpatient setting with a primarily adult/gero population. I am also the CHI-St. Joseph Health Medical Group APP leader for the Kentucky Market and a participant in the Population Health Committee.
I am excited to network and share “best practices” with all of you, whether it is in person at the AANP National Conference or through this online forum. I want to personally welcome all interested NPs to this new Specialty Practice Group concentrating on Gerontology. I hope you find the content and networking both valuable and insightful.
Dr. Johnnie Sue Cooper Wijewardane is currently the Professor and previously the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the School of Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Formerly, Dr. Wijewardane was the Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Graduate Nursing at Mississippi University for Women (MUW), where she led the MSN-FNP and DNP programs. She developed a new DNP program at MUW and facilitated a collaborative NP residency program with a local rural hospital that is sustained entirely by the hospital. Dr. Wijewardane works with nursing leadership groups to ensure lawmakers and regulatory committees have accurate nursing policy information. She implemented “DNP Day at the Capitol” for MUW DNP students, and was awarded the 2014 AANP State Award for Excellence.
Dr. Wijewardane has been a family nurse practitioner since 2001 and has worked extensively in occupational health, primary care and spent the last four years working in long-term care. For her dissertation, she developed and tested an instrument for testing parental self-efficacy to influence child health behavior. The instrument, the Cooper Parental Self-Efficacy Scale -- Child Health Behaviors (CPSS-CHB), was used in a student DNP project under her direction.
She is an expert in nursing education and graduate curriculum design with over a decade of experience in nurse practitioner education. She has statewide and national presentations on interviews as a part of the NP and DNP admission process, nursing leadership and long-term care topics. Dr. Wijewardane earned her BSN, MSN and PhD from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and earned post-graduate credit in Applied Statistics from Texas A&M University.
Gerontology SPG Forums
Join this growing SPG community and engage with other like-minded NPs with an interest in gerontology. Take part in interactive discussion and debate, gain support and explore Q&As and always be on top of the latest available news, education and information.
Gerontology SPG Details and Eligibility
- Annual Dues: $20.
- Available exclusively to current AANP members.
- Open to all AANP members with specialty practice or interest in gerontology, especially those with board certification.