Melissa Patrick is a reporter for Kentucky Health News, based in Lexington. She has a background as a professional registered nurse, who excels at turning complex health stories into reader-friendly, actionable information. She produces both long and short-form print and multimedia projects for Kentucky Health News; the stories are, subsequently, republished on HealthCetera. New America Media, the country's first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 3,000 ethnic news organizations, is partnering with the Center to distribute her work to a national and international audience. Patrick’s main project will take a multi-part look into a shortage of school nurses throughout the state, a shortage of nurses to serve rural areas, the role of advance practice nurses in meeting some of Kentucky’s health needs and state policy issues impacting nurses.