NPGS Highlight Spokane Community Nurse Practitioners: Sarah Fincham

NPGS Highlight Spokane Community Nurse Practitioners  Sarah has agreed to be our first highlighted ARNP in the Spokane Community. Take a moment to get to know and support your fellow Nurse Practitioner and local organizations!

Hello, my name is Sarah Fincham. I am a clinical associate professor at Washington State University and a family nurse practitioner. I completed a post-masters Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Rush University and completed a community-based quality improvement project titled Increasing Awareness and Improving Uptake of HPV Vaccine. I received a Master of Science in Nursing in the family nurse practitioner track at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Illinois Wesleyan University.  Since 2015, I have been teaching in the Family Nurse Practitioner-Doctor of Nursing Practice program at WSU.  

I have practiced in a variety of clinical settings as a nurse practitioner, including inpatient care of adults with leukemia, reproductive healthcare, college student health, and, most recently, medical care for patients with eating disorders at The Emily Program. 

(**Patients with eating disorders may receive care at different levels, depending on the frequency and severity of their eating disorder (ED) symptoms/behaviors and their clinical presentation at the time of admission to treatment.) 

At The Emily Program, I provide ongoing medical care for patients with eating disorders who are in intensive day treatment (also called “partial hospitalization program”, or PHP) for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED).  This includes evaluating patients from a medical standpoint to assess whether they are in a safe and appropriate level of care and managing the complications of eating disorders during nutritional rehabilitation.  Common tools the medical clinician uses in the evaluation and treatment of patients with eating disorders include gathering a symptom/ED behavior history, performing a physical exam, and obtaining objective data such as 12-lead EKG, serum lab work, weight trend (we do “blind” weights during treatment-patients do not see the numbers), orthostatic vital signs, and other diagnostic tests as indicated.  I feel fortunate to get to provide interdisciplinary care; I currently work on a treatment team that includes therapists, psych-mental health nurse practitioners or psychiatrists, registered dieticians, registered nurses, behavioral health technicians, and other medical providers (nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physicians).