Health Wagon Leaders to Present at Appalachian American Alliance of Nurse Practitioners Conference Nov. 14

(Wise, Va.) - The Appalachian American Alliance of Nurse Practitioners (AAANP) will host its annual conference on Friday, November 14, featuring prominent rural healthcare leaders Teresa Tyson, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, Paula Hill-Collins, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, and Christine Mullins, DNP, FNP-C, CNE, FAANP of The Health Wagon and UVA Wise. They will present on the integrated comprehensive care collective model, sharing insights from their nationally recognized work delivering care across Appalachia.

This year’s conference, held online via Zoom, focuses on continuing education designed specifically for nurse practitioners serving the Appalachian region. Course offerings emphasize rural health, evidence-based practice, and emerging trends affecting patient outcomes.

“Presenting at the Appalachian American Alliance Conference is an incredible honor. As a nurse practitioner leading one of the nation’s most innovative free, mobile clinics, I see every day how our Integrative Comprehensive Care (ICC) model transforms lives in Central Appalachia, said Teresa Tyson, DNP, FNP-BC, President & CEO, The Health Wagon. “This model—nurse-led, digitally connected, and rooted in deep community partnership—proves that world-class, whole-person care can reach even the most remote hollers. Sharing The Health Wagon’s story of faith, grit, and unwavering commitment to the underserved is both humbling and energizing. My hope is that our experience inspires others to believe that no community is too isolated, and no patient is too poor, to benefit from integrated, equitable care,” Tyson said.

“Our ICCC model is truly decades in the making, built from listening to our communities and refining what works on a systemic level.” said Paula Hill-Collins, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP. “Nurse practitioners have long been the backbone of rural healthcare, mobilizing millions in care delivery and bringing life-changing services directly to the people who need them most. Just as our mobile units became a replicable model of access, this holistic, whole-person approach is designed to scale and strengthen rural health systems for generations to come.

Participants will gain the tools and knowledge to:

· Define the integrated comprehensive care collective model

· Incorporate leadership practices that support sustainable care delivery

· Differentiate rural and urban patterns in heart failure outcomes and examine contributing factors

· Identify system-level and access barriers impacting heart failure management in rural communities

· Describe both the negative and positive elements of rurality through the CARE framework

The AAANP conference offers a vital platform for nurse practitioners to address the unique challenges and opportunities in Appalachian healthcare, including access disparities, chronic disease management, and the importance of culturally informed models of care.

About the Health Wagon:

The Health Wagon is a nurse practitioner managed clinic that has been in existence

since 1980 which provides free medical, dental and vision health care services in Lee,

Scott, Wise, Dickenson, Buchanan, Washington and Russell Counties and Norton City. For

more information about The Health Wagon, please call 276-328-8850 or visit

www.thehealthwagon.org. If you would like to donate to the Health Wagon, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, please visit: www.thehealthwagon.org/donate.