Dr. Johnnie Sue Wijewardane's professional passion is to elevate and empower nurse practitioners to be knowledgable of and to practice to the full scope of the nurse practitioner role, and incorporating Design Thinking into nursing education and practice at all levels! An NP evangelist of sorts, she developed and facilitated implementation of a DNP program for NPs at Mississippi University for Women, and facilitated a collaborative NP residency program with a local rural hospital that is now nationally accredited and sustained entirely by the hospital.
Wijewardane works with the FAANP mentoring committee to create innovative and generationally appropriate mentorship opportunities for nurse practitioners in AANP. She is active on the FAANP executive council serving as secretary. She is Dean of the Belhaven University School of Nursing, and is a family nurse practitioner since 2001. Her work as a clinician spans occupational health, primary care, college health, and long-term care.
Wijewardane served in a number of clinical and educational capacities including manager of patient quality and safety at Children's of Mississippi in the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Inaugural Dean for Radford University School of Nursing. She served the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing as Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Chair of the Department of Graduate Nursing at Mississippi University for Women (MUW) where she led the MSN-FNP and DNP programs.
Wijewardane developed and tested an instrument for testing parental self-efficacy to influence child health behavior. The instrument, the Cooper Parental Self-Efficacy Scale -- Child Health Behaviors (CPSS-CHB) was used in a student DNP project under her direction.
Wijewardane's expertise spans nursing academic leadership, education and graduate curriculum design with over a decade of experience in nurse practitioner education. She presents at state and national venues and on topics including nursing leadership, long-term care topics, and design thinking in healthcare and nursing. Dr. Wijewardane earned her BSN, MSN, and PhD from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, earned post graduate credit in Applied Statistics from Texas A&M University. She holds a certificate in Design Thinking from the Artis College of Visual and Performing Arts at Radford University where she is pursuing an MFA in Design Thinking.
She co-founded and co-owns the 1817 Group, LLC with her husband where they provide technology and healthcare related consulting, design, and design thinking.