Penny Kaye Jensen, DNP, FNP-C, FAAN, FAANP is the past president of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), and Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). She was inducted into the National Academies of Practice (NAP) as a Distinguished Practitioner and Fellow, is also as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in 2013. Dr. Jensen began her career with the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1994 and has practiced for the past 21 years as a nurse practitioner in the Outpatient Primary Care Clinics at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. She is currently serving as the National APRN Health Policy Liaison for the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Nursing Services in Washington, D.C. Her primary responsibility has been to lead the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) initiative to approve Full Practice Authority (FPA) for all Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) throughout the enterprise.
Dr. Jensen has utilized her leadership and expertise in healthcare policy to formulate the APRN regulation that will increase access to healthcare for Veterans throughout the nation. She has utilized her health policy and advanced practice nursing expertise as well as her strong leadership skills in steering VHA’s national agenda to remove variations in APRN practice that exists across VHA, as a result of disparate state regulations. In addition, she is formulated a detailed national implementation plan for FPA which would allow APRNs to function at the top of their education, training and certification and also reduce the effects of national health care provider shortages on VA staffing levels, as well as, enabling VA to provide access to health care services in underserved areas.
Throughout her career, Dr. Jensen has been a strong advocate for and leader in nursing and an expert on NP issues at the international, national, state, and local levels. She is member of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) and the American Urological Association (AUA), reflecting her clinical specialty emphasis of sexual dysfunction, with specific emphasis in erectile dysfunction and comorbid conditions. She has numerous publications and presentations. Dr. Jensen is a clinical expert, well-respected nurse practitioner and educator, and renowned leader. Dr. Jensen’s talents and investments go beyond health care to her larger community, including initiatives with the Junior League of Salt Lake City, and her novel achievement which resulted in utilization of NPs as healthcare providers for the first time in Olympic history during the 2002 Olympic Games. Additionally, Dr. Jensen has represented AANP at White House on numerous occasions, including the unveiling of President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Bill. She was also an invited member of 1st Lady Michelle Obama’s “Joining Forces” Whitehouse Subcommittee. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her scholarship, expertise, and contributions in virtually every venue in which she has invested.