Overview
Courtney Cawthon is a palliative care nurse practitioner who provides inpatient palliative medicine consultation for Emory hospitals, including Emory University Hospital, Emory University Hospital-Midtown, Emory St Joseph’s Hospital, Emory Decatur Hospital, and Emory Johns Creek Hospital. In her role as lead advance practice provider for the Emory Palliative Care Center, she is responsible for supporting and managing all palliative care APPs within Emory Healthcare and maintains relationships with those in our affiliate hospitals (Grady, the Atlanta VAMC, and CHOA). In addition, she is the Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative APP Fellowship at Emory Healthcare planned to launch in July 2022.
A native of middle Tennessee, Courtney attended Mercer University for undergrad and, after completing an MPH at Boston University, worked in health communications research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, focusing on health literacy and its effect on health outcomes of hospitalized patients. This focus on effective health communication in the acutely ill led to a strong clinical interest in palliative care. During her MSN program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, she participated in the Vanderbilt Program for Interprofessional Learning, which focused on developing healthcare providers who practice collaboratively, in effective interdisciplinary teams. She completed a fellowship in palliative care and hospice in 2016 and joined Emory Healthcare in 2018. She remains dedicated to research, quality improvement, and education of patients and families, as well as healthcare providers.
Education
- MPH, Boston University (International Health), 2007
- MSN, Vanderbilt University (Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner), 2015
- Fellowship, Atrium Health (formerly Carolinas Healthcare System) Center for Advance Practice APP Fellowship (Palliative Care), 2016