2025 Georgia Clinical Nurse Specialist Conference

Dr. Melissa Rouse, PhD, APRN, CNS-BC, NEA-BC is the Chief Nursing Officer for Northeast Georgia Health System, Gainesville campus. She has been with the system for 4 years. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from San Diego State University in 1996, Melissa went on to receive a Master of Science in Nursing as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in 2008 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing in 2013. Her Masters and Doctorate are both from the University of San Diego. She has a background in Emergency/Trauma nursing. She is a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and has held regulatory, accreditation and nursing leadership positions at all levels. Melissa is a highly visible nurse leader with proven results in quality, patient safety and employee engagement. She is passionate about nursing, mentoring others and providing high quality patient care. She has a strategic mindset and is proven to perform under pressure. Over the last couple of years, she has been immersed in implementing tactics to open a new patient tower at NGMC Gainesville and has implemented many programs to combat the staffing shortage and address the workforce challenges of the future. Melissa has experience in nursing academia, teaching at the Doctoral, Masters and Bachelors level. She is currently teaching online in the Nursing Doctoral program for Walden University. She has led multiple research studies and has published her work. She has presented nationally and internationally about various nursing projects and initiatives.

Noreen 0' Connor Peyatt is currently employed as a Clinical Specialist at Emory University Orthopaedic & Spine Hospital. Noreen is an Advanced Practice Pain Management Nurse and holds ANCC Certifications in Pain Management Nursing, Nursing Professional Development and as an Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist. Noreen has more than 30-years of clinical experience in pain management with an interest to quality patient care and outcomes. Noreen has been a speaker at both the state and national levels on the topic of pain management and has participated in pain management research and publication. Noreen currently serves as the Chair for the Emory Healthcare Pain Management Committee, the Opioid Stewardship Council and is the nursing representative for the EHC Addiction Training Team. At a National Level, Noreen serves as co-chair of the American Society for Pain Management Nursing Advanced Practice Pain Management Nursing Commission & is a member of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Pain Management Special Interest Group that recently updated position statements: Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice in Pain Management & Considerations for the Clinical Nurse Specialist in Caring for Patients with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) Considerations for the Clinical Nurse Specialist in Caring for Patients with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) .

Nick is a PhD Candidate in Human Factors from the Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. Nick recently received the Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship from Purdue for his research on nurses' situation awareness and recognition of patient deterioration. Nick's research interests are focused on utilizing smart sensors to measure the cognitive factors that impact healthcare providers' technical and non-technical skills in the clinical environment.

President Hornbeck is a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) native to the Midwest but transitioned to a Georgia Peach 3 years ago. Dr. Hornbeck has obtained her nursing knowledge while staffing various levels in healthcare, varying positions include home health aide (HHA), certified nursing assistant (CNA), license practical nurse (LPN), registered nurse (RN), clinical nurse specialist (CNS), and finally doctorate in nursing practice (DNP). Dr. Hornbeck is always in pursuit of opportunities to allow her to fulfill her passion of improving nursing practice utilizing multidisciplinary collaboration/transformational leadership to develop innovative educational tools to support practicing nurses. Her career goals encompass researching and implementing interventions assisting nurses to save and improve lives of acute care patients by improving the nursing workflow to make it easy for nurses to do the right thing. As a nurse leader/care provider; Dr. Hornbeck uses her knowledge, skills, and experience to assure new and experienced nurses feel supported as they develop and or enhance their foundational nursing skills, critical thinking, and clinical decision practices. As an expert mentor she seeks to grow students, nurses, and clinical teams professionally to achieve optimal healthcare outcomes assuring evidence-based practice is implemented. Her healthcare leadership and process improvement dedication places patient safety and quality at the forefront while remaining mindful of all stakeholders. As an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) CNS, she has led a multidisciplinary team decreasing hospital mortality by 50% in 2012, focusing on early recognition symptom management preventing transfers of patient to higher levels of care. She has led a post-acute accountable care organization to decrease unnecessary emergency department (ED) utilization and thirty day readmission rates. She seeks to pull strengths of multiple disciplines making complex patients and nursing environments safe and manageable. Her most recent work is collaborating with engineering to capture and analyze cognitive overload in nursing.