Allison E Kirkner, ACNP
Pulmonary Critical Care
Bio & Overview
Allison Kirkner, MSN, BSN, is a certified acute care nurse practitioner who specializes in caring for patients who require advanced surgical care for cardiac, thoracic and vascular conditions.
Her clinical interests include temporary mechanical circulatory support and heart and lung transplant.
Raised in southwest Virginia, Kirkner attended the UVA School of Nursing while working as a nursing technician in the thoracic cardiovascular intensive care unit (TCVICU). It was this experience that ignited her passion for cardiothoracic surgery and shaped her future training.
She went on to complete a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree and Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (ACNP) certification at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Kirkner then returned to UVA Health in 2015 to work as a nurse practitioner in the TCVICU, and she completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at UVA in 2022.
Clinical Interests
- Cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery
- Temporary mechanical circulatory support
- Heart and lung transplantation
- Advanced practice providers
- Gender
- Female
- Languages
- English
- Age Groups Seen
- Adults (21-65)
Older Adults (65+)
- Certification
- American Association of Critical Care Nurses (Cardiac Surgery), American Association of Critical Care Nurses (-), American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) (Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner)
Highlights
Meet Allison Kirkner, ACNP
My name is Allison Kirkner. I am a nurse practitioner and I'm the CV Surgery APP manager. I am a nurse practitioner in our cardiac, thoracic and vascular ICU, so typically that entails patients who have undergone cardiac, thoracic or vascular surgery. I think as a nurse practitioner, one of the things that I really like about the role is the ability to help communicate from the primary team, from the surgical team, from the ICU team, to the patient and to the family members. It's vitally important that our patients and our family members have a good working understanding of what is going on with them, for them to be able to partner with us to make decisions about their care. So communication is an extremely important piece of my job as a nurse practitioner, especially in an intensive-care unit. I think that people should choose UVA over other institutions largely because of the people. The care that you'll receive here is obviously top-notch. It is cutting-edge. We have great research. We have great providers, great surgeons, great physicians, great nurses, great respiratory therapists. But aside from their titles and their training and their experience, the level of care that people put into their jobs and into making sure that patients are well cared for, I think, really sets us apart from any other institution.