Fran Ricker is a doctoral student in our health policy concentration. Fran has a broad thirty year clinical nursing background with experience in diverse fields: critical care, endoscopy, perioperative nursing, home health, nursing administration, and management. She graduated from UNM with a BSN in 1977. Her interest in health policy began in the 1990s. She completed her MSN at the University of Colorado in 2002 in Health Care Systems Leadership: Health Policy Analysis and Design. She has served in numerous leadership roles in professional nursing organizations in Colorado.
Fran has also served in advocacy roles for the nursing profession in Colorado. She was Executive Director for the Colorado Nurses Association (CNA) from 2007-2013. For two years she served as the professional lobbyist for the association at the Colorado Legislature. She has been recognized for her advocacy for advanced practice nurses, and nursing workforce issues (AANP State Advocacy Award). Nursing workforce policy issues that she has been involved with directly include: Sunset Colorado Nurse Practice Act and subsequent regulations, 2009-2011, CRNA Opt Out litigation – Colorado, coordination of CNA nursing representatives on Governor’s Task Force Nurse Workforce, and Patient Care (2007). She was involved in representing the association on issues regarding access to care and the state insurance exchange legislation in Colorado.
A state legislated research study in Colorado on nurse involvement in decision making was authorized after the Governor’s Task Force had submitted the final report. Fran served as Co-Chair for the research committee of diverse nursing stakeholders for three and a half years. The study findings were published in the Journal of Nursing Administration (July/August 2012).
Fran’s long range goals include teaching health policy to health care professionals, health program planning, and advocacy for health care issues. She currently is on the nursing faculty at Platt College in Colorado where she teaches nursing leadership, cultures, and fundamentals in nursing to BSN students. She is a current member of ANA, and NLN.
