SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Joanne Fierro is currently enrolled in the PhD program at UCLA School of Nursing. As a Nurse Practitioner in Urgent Care, she assesses and treats patients of all ages with urgent medical needs. Joanne has been involved with patients in low socioeconomic status for most of her career. She strives to optimize health and improve the quality of life for her patients. Her work at Children’s Hospital of Orange County included successful programs for Cystic Fibrosis and RSV Prevention. One program she developed and implemented was the Cystic Fibrosis Home IV Clinic program which decreased hospital readmissions by 45 percent. This led to her participation at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference as speaker, session moderator and discussion leader for many years. Her work with RSV prevention decreased the incidence of premature and at risk infants with RSV infection, leading to decreased disease severity and decreased hospital admissions. Her current work in asthma looks at provider adherence to the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) guidelines in the Medi-Cal population after implementation of the NAEPP guidelines in the electronic medical record.