Kathleen O. DeMutis, DNP, ANP-BC
Kathleen O. DeMutis had great preceptors who helped her bridge the gap between school and clinical practice when she was a graduate student at Penn Nursing. Today, she helps hundreds of nurse practitioner students make the same transition, as a preceptor herself and by coordinating clinical sites for many of the graduate programs at Penn’s School of Nursing.
“The best clinical education I received at Penn Nursing was being precepted by others. It’s been important for me to precept students ever since.”
Education
- DNP, Villanova University, 2017
- MSN, University of Pennsylvania, 1997
- BSN, University of Delaware, 1992
Research
As a student in Villanova University’s DNP program, Dr. DeMutis pursued research on how to safely prescribe opioids. The overuse and misuse of these analgesics, and the so-called opioid epidemic that has received widespread public attention, prompted Dr. DeMutis to study the issue. As part of her research, Dr. DeMutis created an educational presentation for nurse practitioners to reinforce how to safely prescribe opioid medication to appropriate patients.
Clinical Practice
The Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration project at Penn, a collaboration between the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Nursing, seeks to nearly double the number of advance practice nursing graduates in the region by 2017. As the centralized clinical site coordinator, Dr. DeMutis works with nearly a dozen health systems to coordinate clinical experiences for Penn nursing students every semester. Penn is one of five sites nationwide participating in the Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration.
Working as a nurse practitioner at various medical practices, Dr. DeMutis has been a clinical preceptor for nurse practitioner students at Penn Nursing since 2003. She began lecturing at Penn in 2005, as part of the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program, while continuing her role as a preceptor in her clinical practice, currently at Main Line Health Care Family Medicine.
Opportunities to Learn and Collaborate at Penn Nursing
The dual role of teacher and preceptor is important to Dr. DeMutis. In the classroom, she lectures to nurse practitioner students through a series of primary care courses (NURS647, 648, 649, 661 and 663) designed to teach them how to take care of patients in different age groups. Students study how to evaluate and manage primary care problems in adolescents, young adults, middle-age adults, and older patients, reviewing everything from acute health issues like colds and pneumonia to chronic health concerns like cardiac and kidney diseases. In clinical settings, Dr. DeMutis helps students learn first-hand how to evaluate and treat patients with these problems.
Dr. DeMutis constantly evaluates her courses and content to provide information that is useful for graduate students in the classroom and relevant in clinical settings. Her overarching goal is to graduate nurse practitioners in the adult-gerontology program who can provide outstanding care in clinical settings. In addition to teaching nurse practitioner students, Dr. DeMutis also advises undergraduate students who are interested in the nurse practitioner program and helps recruit students into the program.
Selected Career Highlights
- Member, Sigma Theta Tau International
- Member, National League for Nursing
- Member, Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners
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Paying It Forward with Precepting
When Kate Demutis came to Penn Nursing as a graduate student, she was most grateful for the incredible preceptors that helped her transition between school and clinical practice. Today, she is paying it forward. With Penn Nursing being one of the only advanced degree nursing schools in the country to match students with clinical placements and precepting relationships, Kate coordinates those placements and, as testament to the value she found in the program, is a preceptor herself.
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