Dr. Bradley Kuo, DNP, M.Ed, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, and Lee Ann Teshima, the executive officer of the Hawai‘i Board of Nursing, have been named the 2021 American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) State Award Recipients.
These prestigious awards are given annually to a dedicated nurse practitioner (NP) and NP advocate in each state. Governor David Ige also proclaimed November 7-13, 2021 as Nurse Practitioner Week.
Kuo was nominated because he developed the first NP-owned telehealth behavioral health practice in the state, and the first psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner fellowship in the state.
“In the state of Hawai‘i, we need to increase community mental health support,” he said. “We have issues fulfilling needs particularly on the neighbor islands. Building a telehealth practice was an important piece to making that a reality. Starting the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Fellowship at The Queen's Medical Center was another way to entice PMHNPs to Hawai‘i since we didn't have a program at the time. My goal is to increase access to mental health support for the people who need it.”
Teshima has served as the executive officer of the Board of Nursing since 2010. During that time, the state achieved significant improvements to the Hawaii Nurse Practice Act, including aligning with the APRN Consensus Model and fulfilling the state's goal of having full practice authority for APRNs pursuant to their education, training, and certification.
Teshima has worked with nurses, the Board of Nursing, and the Legislature on bills that aim to improve access to care for the people of Hawai‘i through removing APRN barriers to practice.
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