Nursing school faculty honored with American College of Nurse-Midwives fellowships

Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing faculty members Nicole Carlson, PhD, MSN and Desireé Clement, DNP, APRN, CNM, FNP-BC have been elected as fellows in the
American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM). The Fellowship in the American College of Nurse-Midwives (FACNM) is an honor bestowed upon midwives who demonstrate leadership within the ACNM, clinical excellence, outstanding scholarship and professional achievement. The ACNM Fellowship program was established in 1994. There have been around 350 ACNM members inducted as fellows since that year.

“This fellowship demonstrates their dedication to the American College of Nurse-Midwives and its focus on clinical excellence, clinical scholarship and professional achievement,” says Linda McCauley, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAAOHN, dean of the Emory School of Nursing. “Their commitment to educating our students in this crucial area of need is invaluable.”

Dr. Carlson, an assistant professor, has been involved with the ACNM for many years. She is the current President of the Georgia Affiliate of the ACNM. Carlson is also a member of the ACNM’s Virtual Quality Institute, a group focused on quality assurance and improvement in care for women in the weeks before and after giving birth.

She has been involved in this kind of care for women since 1993 and has been a certified nurse-midwife since 2007. At Emory’s School of Nursing, Carlson conducts research on labor in obese women. Here, she focuses on labor dysfunction and strategies for achieving better outcomes in this vulnerable population. Carlson’s research and professional endeavors have been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the March of Dimes, the University of Colorado, and The American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Dr. Carlson has published several notable papers in the realm of midwifery in peer-reviewed journals. These include, “Labor dysfunction in obese women: Time to Target the pathobiology,” in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, and “Intrapartum management associated with obesity in nulliparous women,” in the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health. This scholarship demonstrates a high level of compassion in the clinical setting, which is in line with the ACNM’s focus on clinical excellence.

Dr. Clement is a clinical assistant professor and the coordinator of the Dual Specialty Family Nurse Practitioner-Midwifery program at the Emory School of Nursing. A Navy veteran who has cared for pregnant women since 1996 and has been a Certified Nurse Midwife since 2003 and a Family Nurse Practitioner since in 2015, Dr. Clement cares for women and their families. Dr. Clement is also very active in the ACNM, serving on their National Government Affairs committee, Continuing Education Unit Program Review committee and national convention program planning committee. In 2018, Clement served as co-chair of the ACNM national convention’s local planning committee in Savannah, GA. She has also previously served as the state vice president of the Georgia Affiliate of the ACNM.

Dr. Clement has advised and published on state-level policy impacting midwifery and nursing while currently serving as the state director-at-large for United Advanced Practice Registered Nurses of Georgia and co-director for the Georgia Coalition of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. Recently, she was accepted into the Emory University Institute of Developing Nations Thought Leader Fellowship. Dr. Clement’s research focuses on transformational leadership, health policy, nursing unity and inter-professional education related to midwifery and nursing as a whole. This scholarship is shown not only in her papers in peer-reviewed journals, but in an instructional video titled, “Desireé Clement-IPE interview: Role of an APRN Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner,” which was produced by the Mercer University College of Pharmacy. This video is used for student training modules aimed at demonstrating what advanced practice nurse midwives and family nurse practitioners are able to achieve. With nearly 1,000 views on YouTube, this video has informed many students on these health care roles.