Many things can influence what makes someone want to pursue a certain career. For three of our remarkable Corewell Health APPs, this included a “fireworks moment,” the transformative nature of the birthing process and the ability to improve patient access to health care.

Below we share these team member stories and celebrated them, and all APPs, during National Advanced Practice Provider Week. Thank you, Jamie Fineran, nurse practitioner, Mendon Kelrick, certified nurse midwife, and Kandace Ward, PA-C, for everything you do to innovate medicine, elevate our patients' needs and celebrate our health care wins.

Jamie Fineran, NP, didn’t start out wanting to be a nurse practitioner. She was initially drawn to nursing because of her interest in science and the human body. 

She started her career as a bedside nurse at the now named Corewell Health Dearborn Hospital and later transferred to what is now Corewell Health Wayne Hospital.

After a few years, Jamie left the hospital setting to be a clinical manager of a busy family practice. There she found she enjoyed connecting with patients and their families.

“Whole families came to our office,” she said. “We became like part of their family.”

When the office was full, Jamie would notice patients waiting a long time to be seen. That’s when she decided to go back to school and become a nurse practitioner.

As a nurse practitioner, Jamie could help improve access so patients could be seen sooner. She also focused on patient education and reducing emergency and urgent care visits.

“My main goal was to help the patients that I had come to love stay healthy,” she said.

With the COVID-19 pandemic came layoffs, and then an opportunity to return to the hospital setting at Corewell Health Wayne Hospital.

In her current role, she continues to promote patient and family education and supports throughput. She does medication reconciliation, assists with discharge or assists with any patient care issues to help them move toward discharge.

“I'm really glad I became a nurse practitioner because I love having that one-on-one patient discussion and helping develop the plan (for discharge),” she said.

Jamie is proud of the trust she has built with the physicians, other team members and other services in the hospital. She wants people to know nurse practitioners have a strong background in nursing and many years of education.

This helps whether she is educating families, supporting the nurses on the unit, or advocating for the patient.

“It’s hard work, and also very rewarding,” she said.

From knitting teacher to ‘birth junkie,’ meet certified nurse midwife Mendon Kelrick“

It was long, it was grueling, it was traumatic,” said Mendon Kelrick, certified nurse midwife, Corewell Health South.

She was referencing a specific patient’s first labor. It resulted in an unplanned cesarean section due to arrested progression of labor, something neither the patient nor the health care team wanted, Mendon said.

But the reason she thinks about this patient so much, and why she finds her story inspiring, is because she came in for her second pregnancy and it was a completely different experience.

The patient declined cervical exams while in labor, which can be painful but can help assess delivery progress. Mendon talked her through her options to figure out what was best for her, and she delivered the baby without complications.

“I was glad I could hold that space for her, reassuring the nurses and communicating with the physician,” she said. “I share this example to also reinforce to people that this birth is not going to be like your last birth, you can have a really different experience.”

Giving patients opportunities to feel heard and empowering them to feel like they are in control of their body throughout their pregnancy and labor are some of Mendon’s passions.

Now a self-described “birth junkie,” it took Mendon some time to find her true passion. She planned to be a plant biology researcher, and she has worked as a bike mechanic and knitting teacher.

But it was when she was working in San Francisco and volunteering for a women’s clinic that she started gravitating toward health care. She trained as a doula and discovered the intricate, unpredictable and profoundly transformative nature of the birth process.

“It's a very interesting and transitional time for people, and not just birth, but pregnancy,” Mendon said. “It's a period of ‘becoming,’ especially during a first pregnancy, becoming a parent and experiencing things that their body has never gone through before. It can be a time people are unusually open to making changes that will impact their future health too, like quitting smoking.”

Mendon earned her Bachelor of Science in nursing from Truman State University and her Master of Science in nurse-midwifery from the University of Michigan.

She works at InterCare Women's Health Center in Benton Harbor along with BellaNova Women’s Health, and she delivers babies at Corewell Health Lakeland Hospital - St. Joseph Medical Center.

When asked what she hopes for in the future relative to her career as a midwife, Mendon said she wants to see even greater communication and collaboration between health care systems, providers, and community birth workers like doulas and lactation consultants.

"How can we be collaborating together, and working alongside each other, to provide the best care possible, both before, during and after delivery?” She asked. “That's where my focus will be."

When Kandace Ward’s first grade teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she answered, “anesthesiologist.” 

Her teacher was stunned. “Do you even know how to spell that?”

 “A-N-E-S-T-H-E-S-I-O-L-O-G-I-S-T,” the bright, young Detroit-born girl responded, beginning her health care story. Today as a Corewell Health West physician assistant and advanced practice provider leader, Kandace still surprises people.

When she interacts with patients who initially underestimate her, she witnesses them go through a range of emotions, from confusion to recognition to trust.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m an APP, or woman of global majority, but throughout my career I’ve seen it happen,” she said.

As a Corewell Health urology APP in Grand Rapids, Kandace can be found as the first assistant in the operating room, rounding for preoperative and postoperative care, performing bedside procedures and conducting new patient consults. At times, her role isn’t evident to those she cares for. So, after some loving education, explaining care plans and sprinkling in a little humor along the way, that’s when confusion turns into “Ah-ha.”

Kandace will often see this when explaining a course of care that wasn’t understood fully before, then it “just clicks.” She prioritizes empathy and cultural proficiency, ensuring every patient feels heard and understood. It’s not uncommon for her to be requested by name.

“I take a lot of pride in creating that space for trust,” Kandace said. “I’m not here to replace your physician, I’m here to benefit to the total care team.”

As an APP advocate, Kandace also leads and mentors 25 Corewell Health APPs. She sees extreme value in providing that leadership, as APPs have unique challenges and benefits.

Kandace learned about her current profession while an undergrad at Central Michigan University.  She saw a poster on campus that read, “Do you want to learn about being a physician assistant?”

She said she initially brushed it off “not wanting to be anyone’s assistant.” Until she saw her trusted primary care provider and learned she was not a physician, but a PA.

“That was the fireworks moment for me,” Kandace said. “That’s when my goals and plans changed.”

From there Kandace received master’s degrees in health services administration and physician assistant studies from CMU. She attended her PA residency, one of few programs at the time, with the former Grand Rapids Medical Education Research Center where she found a passion in the surgical urology subspecialty.

“I just really enjoyed the urinary system, its large vastness in disease processes and the surgical options to treat them,” she said. “It made sense to me, and I enjoyed the opportunity to be able to care for patients in both an acute manner, but also as long-term care where I can develop a relationship with them.”

And although urology can sometimes be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their families, Kandace’s superpower is making them laugh, to which she credits her East Michigan roots, “I can be very sarcastic, but that invites people to open up that part of themselves.”

When reflecting on her personal journey, Kandace also credits her family and upbringing for shaping her work ethic and aspirations. She recognizes the importance of representation in the medical field and strives to inspire others through her work, noting the continued growth of her team and the evolving role of PAs in health care.