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June 6, 2008

Ashley Hanahan is the silver winner of the 2008 Excellence in Federal Career Award for Outstanding Professional.  Hanahan, a gastroenterology nurse practitioner at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, was nominated because of her numerous interdisciplinary projects, which have had a significant positive impact on patient care.

The Annual Excellence in Federal Career Awards, sponsored by the Baltimore Federal Executive Board (FEB), is held each year during Public Service Recognition Week.  This is the only government-wide awards program in Maryland that provides an opportunity for federal agencies to honor all levels of civilian and military service members for their exceptional work and service. 

Hanahan, a nurse at the VA Maryland Health Care System since 1997, is a role model to fellow nurses and other employees.  She has consistently gone above the call of duty by recommending additional screenings to her veteran patients while coordinating their disease specific preventative measures, and devising a time-motion study to follow patients from check-in to check-out to assess the timeliness and efficiency of clinic visits in the gastrointestinal (GI) outpatient clinic.   She has also trained GI lab staff on innovative equipment that monitors and eradicates stomach infections.

As a progressive thinker, Hanahan conducted a cost-feasibility project that saved the health care system over $20,000 on specialized GI ultrasound equipment used during liver biopsies.

While serving as an advocate for her patients, she has also arranged for overnight stays for patients requiring procedures for whom travel the day of the procedure would be too burdensome. Hanahan has also facilitated non-VA care for veterans who were too ill or unable to obtain needed medical care at their local VA facility. 

Hanahan earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology from George Washington University in 1986, and her master of public health degree from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill in 1991.  She went on to earn her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Catholic University of America in 1992, and her master of science in nursing/nurse practitioner degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1999.  To stay current with the latest clinical knowledge in her field, Hanahan regularly attends local and national education and training programs.

Active in her professional community, she is Advanced Cardiac Life Support certified and is a CPR instructor for the VA Maryland Health Care System.  Hanahan is also a faculty associate at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and precepts graduate students in the Nurse Practitioner Program at the Baltimore VA Medical Center.  She has also guest lectured about the role of the advanced practice nurse at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.