Biography

Michelle has been a nurse for 19 years and a nurse practitioner for the past 12 years. She works at Penn State Hershey’s Program for Adult Congenital Heart Disease (PACHD). Her background in critical care and cardiology has served her well. She became an Adult Critical Care Nurse Practitioner primarily because she wanted to see patients have excellent care with better linkages between medicine and nursing from the critical care unit to the outpatient clinics. She completed her nurse practitioner education at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1997 with a Masters in Nursing. Her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing is from Penn State University, so she still “bleeds blue”. Michelle is passionate about the lifelong specialized care of those with congenital heart disease and believes that all adults with congenital heart disease deserve quality care.

Over the years, she has worked in a variety of capacities: as a nurse on medical-surgical, telemetry, medical intermediate and intensive care units, as a traveling nurse in Texas and North Carolina, as a clinical instructor for Penn State's School of Nursing, and as a nurse practitioner in preadmissions, anesthesia and various programs in cardiology including interventional cardiology and lipids/prevention.

More details about our Program for Adult Congenital Heart Disease can be found at http://www.pennstatehershey.org/pachd.

CV

Nurse Practitioner
   Penn State Heart & Vascular Institute Program for Adults with Congenital Heart Disease (PACHD)
Instructor of Medicine
   Department of Medicine Penn State College of Medicine

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journals

Banchs J, Nickolaus M, Gonzalez M, Kelleman J, Wolbrette D, Grando-Ting J, Samii S, Naccarelli GV, Davidson W. Clinical efficacy of dofetilide for the treatment of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias in adults with congenital heart disease. J Interv Card Electrophysiol 2009;24: 267-268.

Khairy, P. Hosn JA. Broberg C. Cook, S. Earing M. Gersony D. Kay J. Landzberg MJ. Nickolaus MJ. Opotowsky S. Valente AM. Warnes C. Webb G. Gurvitz MZ; Alliance for Adult Research in Congenital Cardiology (AARCC). Multicenter research in adult congenital heart disease. International Journal of Cardiology. 129(2):155-159, 2008.

Books Chapters

Moons, P. Cannobio, M. Verstappen, A. Nickolaus, MJ. (2008). Caring for the patient with adult congenital heart disease, Chapter 71. In Moser, D. & Riegel, B. (Eds.), Cardiac Nursing: A Companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease (1st Ed.).

Electronic Software

Everett, AD. Riopel, DA. Nickolaus, MJ. Buck, M. PedHeart: Adult Congenital Primer., Educational CD, Scientific Software Solutions, 2006.

Abstracts - Poster Presentations

Presented at American College of Cardiology – ACC ’09, Orlando, FL (2009)

• Dilated Aortic Root in Adults with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot: A Multicenter Prevalence Study
• Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in Adults With Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot
• Prevalence of Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Adults With Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot

Research

• “Health Education and Access Research Trial in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease (HEART-ACHD) study”, AARCC Investigators [NIH funded study in progress].
• “Exercise stress Testing as a Predictor of Pregnancy Outcome in Women with Congenital Heart Disease: A retrospective study”, Deborah Gersony, MD, Prinicipal Investigator; Co- invesitgators, Paul Khairy, MD, Mike Earing, MD, Joseph Kay, MD, Michelle Nickolaus, CRNP; [protocol complete 2009, abstract accepted at AHA 2009].
• “Aortic Root Dimensions and Left Ventricular Function in Tetralogy of Fallot study”, AARCC investigators [presented at ACC ’09].
• Adults with Congenital Heart Disease: Are They Accessing Adequate Follow Up Care?”, Michelle Gurvitz, MD, Principal Investigator [abstract pending].
• Parental Knowledge project, ACCCA Research Group [in process]
  

Grants

• Association of Faculty & Friends (AFF) Grant Awardee, June 2008, Michelle J. Nickolaus, CRNP - Principal Investigator Fit Rx-ACHD: Exercise and Education with Adults with Congenital Heart Disease study [in progress].

Community Service

• Cub Scout Pack 108, Hershey, PA – Secretary, Pack Committee member and assistant webmaster of www.papack108.org
• Advisor/Facilitator for local group, Hershey Area Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA)
• Speaker for Community Health events as below - Women and Heart Disease Awareness Day (Penn State Hershey, February 2008 & 2009)

Awards

• Kienle Nurse Humanitarian Award, 2008

Interests

Michelle has a special interest in providing quality care to adults with congenital heart disease and developing the best methods to aid patients in the transition into adult life with a chronic condition like congenital heart disease. It’s more than just surviving into adulthood it’s about thriving and living life to the fullest.

Her research interests includes exercise and education with ACHD patients, examining best practices to transition or aid patients to “grow up well” with congenital heart disease including pre-pregnancy counseling and vocational counseling. She is a member of the Adult Congenital Cardiac Care Associate (ACCCA) Research Group and is the liaison to the Alliance for Adult Research in Congenital Cardiology (AARCC) Young Investigators.

She is active in the American College of Cardiology on the Nurse Education Planning Committee, past Scientific Session planning committees, the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Working Group. Michelle has presented at various international and national meetings on the topic of adult congenital heart disease. She is active in the International Adult Congenital Heart Disease Nursing (IACHDN) Network.