Paying it Forward” - School of Nursing - West Virginia University

services at two Juvenile Detention Centers in West Virginia.
During the decade that she maintained this part-time practice,
Alvita gained a better understanding of adolescent health
care and treatment of at-risk youths. She also learned firsthand
the challenges of billing for her services. Concurrent
with her other positions, Alvita co-founded a second free clinic
in southern West Virginia, where she worked one day a week
for nearly 15 years. On weekends, Alvita also worked at a rural
hospital fast-track, where she became the first nurse
practitioner in West Virginia to bill for hospital-based services
using her own unique billing number. Alvita maintained at
least three of these part-time positions simultaneously while
teaching part time at WVU.
During the 1990s, while juggling all of her part-time
positions, Alvita worked with her colleagues to craft legislation
to recognize advanced practice nurses in West Virginia,
Dean Georgia Narsavage (right) congratulates Alumna of the Year Alvita Nathaniel.
allowing them to prescribe medications, and bill for their
services. During the intervening years, she has continued to be
active in the policy arena-advocating for advanced practice
nurses.
In 1998 Alvita collaborated with Peggy Burkhardt to coauthor
the nursing textbook, Ethics & Issues in Contemporary
Nursing. The book is currently in its third edition and
continues to be popular in the US and internationally. While
writing this book, Alvita became very interested in moral
distress. This interest led to her dissertation research on moral
reckoning, which she has published in a number of books and
journal articles.
33