From Pink Ambulances to Assisting a Health Clinic, Gulenia Rikabi Takes Care of Others

As a three-year-old, Gulenia “GK” Rikabi, DNP, FNP-BC, a visiting professor with Chamberlain University, played with her pink ambulance, syringes and her stethoscope – offering visitors ‘injections’ to ensure they stayed healthy. Always supportive of her play, Gulenia’s dad continued to be her inspiration as she got older – “he saw the compassion in me.”

First Year on the Job

An instructor for the online Pediatrics and Women’s Health in the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program, Gulenia has three top reasons she has enjoyed her debut year at Chamberlain:

• Organization – “there’s an amazing team for each issue the faculty may encounter”
• Chamberlain Care – “the care I’ve seen for the students and faculty alike is incredible”
• Continuous Support – “I had an incredible manager who was always there for me even on a weekend”

Helping Out

Gulenia also values giving back. She has Stepped Forward for several years by reviewing abstracts for the International Transcultural Nursing Society, and is now planning a symposium for the Mississippi-Alabama and Louisiana chapters. She also works a few days a week in an employee health clinic as a nurse practitioner, tending to all ages – toddlers to the elderly. Her passion includes working with patients with uncontrolled dyslipidemia – an abnormal amount of lipids in the blood – by offering tailored care plans to self-manage the chronic disease and “increase patients’ knowledge of risks” as well as “empower patients to identify their barriers” on the way to better health.

Representing Chamberlain at STTI Conference

Along with many other Chamberlain colleagues and alumni, Gulenia will present her abstract Is One Size Fits All Effective and Safe If Applied in Management of Uncontrolled Dyslipidemia? for a poster presentation at the upcoming Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society’s 31st International Nursing Research Congress in Abu Dhabi this July. Honorees received congratulatory emails stating the submitted abstracts were exceptional and the accepted presentations “are an excellent reflection of current nursing trends and timely issues.”

Ready to earn your next degree? Learn more about Chamberlain’s FNP program.

By Heather L Hurtado