In her role, Paul will be meeting with patients to provide proper lifestyle
counseling while working to ensure each heart failure patient is thoroughly
treated with appropriate medications. Paul will initiate innovative approaches
like group medical appointments to give patients the opportunity to meet
with dieticians and pharmacists in a group setting with others suffering
from heart failure. This approach will build community among patients,
expand the level of dedicated care, and improve efficiency. Paul’s
approach will also focus on reducing patient visits to the hospital by
moving treatments (i.e., diuretics) to the outpatient clinic.
Dr. Brian Steg,
Cardiologist, commented, “Sara Paul is a great addition to
Catawba Valley Cardiology and CVMC. She is one of the most experienced, educated Nurse Practitioners
in the country specializing in the treatment and prevention of heart failure.”
Sara Paul has been an advanced practice cardiovascular nurse for 27 years.
Since 1995, she has been a Nurse Practitioner managing populations of
patients with a history of heart failure. Paul is a founding member of
the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses (AAHFN), and has served
as Secretary for the Board of Directors, Chairperson of the Annual Meeting
Committee and the Heart Failure Disease Management workshop, and she is
the editor of the Core Curriculum Review book for the Heart Failure Nursing
Certification exam. She is currently serving as editor of a book about
heart failure disease management. She sits on the Executive Council of
the Heart Failure Society of America and serves on several committees
of the American Heart Association. She has published numerous journal
articles and book chapters on cardiac topics, and is an invited speaker
at conferences around the country.
About Catawba Valley Medical Center
Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, N.C., is the region’s largest
not-for-profit, public healthcare system and serves the community without
direct funding from taxes. CVMC provides and promotes physical, mental,
emotional and spiritual well-being of the public in addition to serving
as a center for health education, wellness services, preventive medicine
and acute care. CVMC has received three Magnet designations from the American
Nurses Credentialing Center and has been recognized with three Women’s
Choice Awards, being named one of America’s Best 100 Hospitals for
Patient Experience in 2012, a 2013 Best Hospital for Patient Experience
in Obstetrics and one of America’s Best Hospitals in Orthopedics
in 2013 by WomenCertified®. For more information, please visit
http://www.catawbavalleymedical.org.