About Us

Our Mission

To empower people in their health care through advocacy, education, and guidance through the healthcare system.

For over 10 years, we at RN Patient Advocates have worked independently with patients to assist them in finding the best healthcare and treatment outcomes possible. Do you have a medical crisis? Wonder what doctors might best help you? Have a mystery illness that no one can diagnose? Have several doctors who don’t speak to each other? Wonder what all of your medications actually do for you?

Experienced clinical RNs are a treasure trove of information and, working as independent RN Patient Advocates, can stand by your side through your illness: asking the healthcare questions you don’t know how to ask, teaching you what is really going on in your body, researching and teaching you the full range of treatment options, guiding you through the maze of the healthcare system so it can best serve you.

Our Founder

Karen Mercereau, RN

Karen Mercereau, RN, brings 45 years of clinical nursing, community and home-based healthcare delivery along with patient advocacy experience to the development of RN Patient Advocates, PLLC. Her expertise has always been in the recognition of nursing as a dynamic process and in the development of systems reflecting that in the ever-changing world of healthcare. This focus led her to such diverse activities as serving as clinical instructor to paramedics, working with the team establishing the first Hospice in Tucson, AZ, and specializing in the intensive care areas of hospitals.

She practiced her clinical skills alongside working to create new healthcare delivery systems. Leading a nationally recognized task force on RN Credentialing, she worked to assure the most appropriate care to patients and to provide a career path for RN’s reflecting both academic and clinical experiences. This creative approach also served Karen well as she led a consortium of private and public sector healthcare providers to establish healthcare delivery systems for HIV-AIDS patients in the time before government recognition of the disease.

Continuing her role as healthcare innovator, Karen has now evolved the Advocacy Process (c) which is the Standard of Care of independent RN Patient Advocates who complete the learning intensive preparing them for this role. She has designed the National Network of RN Patient Advocates to serve as the virtual community linking them.

The RN Patient Advocacy program provides for the improved safety and education of both hospitalized and community-based patients at this time of increasing numbers of medical errors which result in complications and deaths. RN Patient Advocates recognizes that these errors are largely a phenomenon of medicine for profit, not a result of substandard doctors and nurses. Karen is best known for her ability to function effectively in complex circumstances, keeping the safety of her patients foremost in advocating on their behalf with multiple providers.

Advisory Board

• Karen Ann Brown, RN PhD – Educational Advisor, Curriculum and program Development RN Patient Advocates; Creator/Facilitator RN Refresher Course Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ
• Barbara Bagdasarian Brewer, RN, PhD, MBA – Director of Professional Practice, John C. Lincoln Hospital, Phoenix, AZ; Adjunct Associate Professor, College of Nursing, Arizona State University; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Indiana University School of Nursing
• Cathy Michaels, PhD, RN, FAAN Clinical Associate Professor College of Nursing University of Arizona
• Kathleen Ann Ennis Lambert, BSN, RN, JD – Law office of Kathleen Lambert – Tort and Administrative Law
• Chet Ross – Director, SCORE Arizona
• Kristene Gregg – Gregg and Company, Tampa, FL – specialty: strategic internet healthcare marketing – marketing plan development, graphic arts
• Cheryl Bakke, BSN, RN, MS, CWPD – Consultant on Clinical Staff Development,  Health and Wellness Coach

Affiliations

• College of Nursing, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
• Member AdvoConnection
• Member American Nurses Association
• MemberAmerican Holistic Nurses Association