Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, University of Tennessee Medical Center-Knoxville
Co-Founder, Transformational Wellness Initiative
Knoxville, Tennessee
Carla Worley Saunders has been a board-certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner since 1991 and received her Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2017. Dr. Saunders has a dedicated passion in her work advocating for mothers and babies; which led her to her doctoral work that has now created a larger vision for improving communities and public health through empowering women. This passion was the inspiration behind the formation of the Transformational Wellness Initiative and the fulfillment of a promise to the mothers and babies she cared for who have been affected by the opioid crisis. Her mission is to inspire others to elevate the expectations of healthcare among individuals and organizations and initiate a movement that goes beyond healthcare reform to transformative healthcare.
In 2010, Dr. Saunders gathered a multidisciplinary team in response to the alarming rise in number of babies being admitted to the NICU suffering from the physical withdrawal of maternal opiate exposure, Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). The work done by her team is receiving local, state, national, and international attention, including: CNN Headline News, Anderson Cooper, ABC Nightline, and ABC affiliate Australia, and NPR StoryCorps. The focus of their work has work has gone beyond the bedside into community awareness, education, and prevention strategies with the Tennessee Department of Health. She is involved extensively in research surrounding Intrauterine Drug Exposure and NAS.
In 2014, Saunders attended the Nurse in Washington Internship (NIWI) where she lobbied on behalf of the nursing community on multiple issues, including Rx substance use among women of childbearing age. She has provided expert testimony before the Tennessee State Senate Health, Welfare Committee in support of the Safe Harbor Act promoting addiction treatment and prenatal care in pregnant women with substance abuse. Dr. Saunders was summoned by the Tennessee Department of Health to be a member of the Opioid Prescribing Task Force responsible for writing Chronic Pain Guidelines for Tennessee and co-authored sections on Special Considerations for Women of Childbearing Age and Pregnant Women. Dr. Saunders and her colleagues published their work in an original research article in the Journal of Neonatal and Perinatal Nursing: Special Edition on Addiction. In 2017, Dr. Saunders was invited to co-author a chapter on NAS for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, “A Pharmacists Guide to Opioid Use Disorders”.
Dr. Saunders is a member of multiple community and professional organizations including: Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPQC), Tennessee Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (TADEC), Tennessee Recovery Coalition, Inc. (TRC), East TN Prescription Drug Task Force and is on the Advisory Board for TDOH Chronic Pain Guidelines. She has served as an Advisory Board member for the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit since 2011.
Dr. Saunders has received multiple awards for her leadership in quality improvement and patient advocacy, including: 2010 Advanced Practitioner of the Year and 2013 Margaret Steinbach Excellence in Leadership Award for Pediatrix Medical Group, 2016 Medical Staff Award for Outstanding APN East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and has been honored as a Hometown Hero by Great American Country Television’s Great American Heroes. In 2017, she and her colleague E. Kyle Cook, MSN, APRN, NNP-BC, were featured on NPR StoryCorps which chronicled their transformational personal and professional journey and has been logged in the Library of Congress.
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Monday, April 18, 2022
2:30 PM – 3:45 PM ET
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
4:30 PM – 5:45 PM ET
Thursday, April 21, 2022
9:45 AM – 11:00 AM ET