The Peter K. Simpson Advanced Practice Nursing Fan (APNF) Award was established by the Doctor of Nursing Practice faculty at the School of Nursing to honor Pete Simpson’s enthusiasm for advanced practice nursing (APN) and is awarded to an individual who has gone above and beyond to support advanced practice nursing in Wyoming.
School of Nursing Dean Mary Burman presented the award to Mike Massie, University of Wyoming director of government relations, at the school's annual Willow Ceremony held May 30 at the Alumni House on the University of Wyoming campus. The Willow Ceremony was instituted to encourage nurse practitioner students as they begin their clinical coursework, so the Simpson APNF Award is particularly of interest to these students. Award recipient Massie, who served as a state legislator from Albany County from 1995-2010, has sponsored legislation to allow for independent practice by advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). That change "removed barriers to health care and has directly benefited the health of Wyoming’s residents,” according to Dean Burman and DNP Program Coordinator Ann Marie Hart. In addition, Burman and Hart note that Massie’s work to ensure the competence and education of advanced practice nurses and his support of the loan repayment program for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner students at UW has directly impacted the health and well-being of Wyoming’s residents.
Dean Burman read a letter from Pete Simpson in presentation of the award: "I want to congratulate you all for the selection of Mike Massie as your first awardee. I can’t tell you how proud I am of your work, Mike, on behalf of the whole educational system in this state. Serving with you in the legislature was a privilege and seeing the benefits of your work on behalf of secondary and community college education has been gratifying in every wayYou have laid down the markers for programs like this one and, as a consequence, the new nurse practitioners in your presence today will see broader horizons, realize more boundless opportunities and achieve loftier goals than ever before."
Massie spoke to the nurse practitioner students after accepting his award. He said that just as Wyoming women at the turn of the 20th century broke out of the traditional women's work molds to meet Wyoming's work needs, so have Wyoming APRNs gone beyond dependent relationships with physicians to meet Wyoming citizens' health care needs.
According to UW News, Massie joined the UW administration in 2011 as a special assistant to the president and became director of government relations in 2013. Before that, he served eight years as executive director of Child Development Services of Wyoming, a private membership organization of Wyoming developmental preschools. He was director of the Community Services Division at UW's Wyoming Institute for Disabilities from 1999-2003, and was assistant director of the Wyoming Council for the Humanities from 1990-99. He earned an M.A. degree (1980) in American history at UW and, from 1991-2003, taught credit courses as an adjunct instructor in the UW Department of History.
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