HEALTH CARE HEROES 2026 AWARDS
Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant: Kaitlin Collins, HopeHealth nurse practitioner
What led you to choose health care as your profession? My path into health care was shaped by a very personal experience. While I was working in New York City in the finance industry, I witnessed my uncle’s health care journey as he battled metastatic melanoma, which he ultimately died from. During that time, I was deeply impressed by the nurses who cared for him and our family. Their skill, compassion, and ability to support patients through incredibly difficult moments left a lasting impact on me. That experience led me to make a major pivot toward nursing, and I’ve never looked back.
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How have you helped boost the quality of or access to health care? I was fortunate to play a key role in helping launch HopeHealth’s Advanced Illness Care at Home program, which expands access to palliative care for patients in the later stages of serious illness. The program focuses on improving quality of life by anticipating, preventing and treating the symptoms and stress associated with advanced illness while supporting patients and families in the comfort of their homes.
What is the biggest challenge you and your organization are facing this year? One of the biggest opportunities in health care right now is learning how to effectively leverage emerging technologies while ensuring they truly support patient care. As technology continues to evolve rapidly, it’s important that we keep pace and integrate new tools in ways that enhance communication, coordination, and access to care rather than creating additional barriers. In palliative care especially, technology has the potential to help us reach more patients, improve care coordination and support patients and families more effectively throughout the course of serious illness.
What more do you feel the state can do to help further support the health care sector in Rhode Island? From a palliative care perspective, there is an opportunity for action at the state level to expand access to these services for all people living with serious illness. One important step would be improving financial incentives and reimbursement models to better support palliative care programs. Establishing a dedicated palliative care benefit or more sustainable payment structures could help ensure equitable access and allow programs to reach more patients.
