Robin Young, RN, MSW, had already enjoyed a successful career as a social worker for 18 years before deciding to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner. Inspired by a deep desire to provide holistic, patient-centered care, Young recognized that she had the unique opportunity to combine her expertise as a social worker in palliative care—addressing emotional, social and psychological needs—with the clinical skills of a nurse to manage physical symptoms and deliver compassionate medical care.
“Palliative care allows you to be very focused on the individual needs of someone—their desires, their joys, their fears—as they live with serious illness. It allows you to take a really lovely, holistic approach to the care of a patient who is living with serious illness and ongoing chronic diseases. It really matched, in many ways, who I am as both a social worker and a nurse,” said Young, a Graduate Entry Pathway student in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Track.
The Graduate Entry Pathway program at UMass Chan Medical School is an accelerated path for students with undergraduate degrees in fields other than nursing to earn Doctor of Nursing Practice or PhD degrees following nursing licensure. Young studied sociology and English at Brandeis University before earning her Master of Social Work from Boston College.
“Bringing my skills as a social worker into my nursing career and trying so many new things makes me feel alive,” she said.
For her DNP scholarly project, Young partnered with the Interprofessional Center for Experiential Learning & Simulation at UMass Chan to improve transgender and gender-diverse representation in medical simulation and health care education. Her work welcomes gender-diverse individuals into the standardized patient pool through strategic recruitment, onboarding and training centered around inclusivity and psychological safety, aiming to improve their visibility in health care simulation experiences.
“Preparing future health care providers to deliver compassionate, competent care to transgender and gender-diverse individuals has given me the chance to drive meaningful change,” said Young, who received a 2024 grant from the Remillard Family Community Service Fund for the project.
The project is set to welcome its first cohort in January. Young will present a project poster at the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Diversity and Inclusion Conference in March.
After she graduates in June, she aspires to practice in acute care with a focus in palliative care. Young received the Janet Fraser Hale Humanism in Health Care Award and the student DAISY Award, an international program recognizing nurses for exceptionally compassionate care, and was selected to speak on behalf of her classmates during their pinning ceremony.
Young and her husband have three children, two cats and a dog, and she loves spending time with them: from supporting her children's theatrical productions and creative endeavors to traveling or watching movies together.
The Student Spotlight series features UMass Chan Medical School students in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and T.H. Chan School of Medicine. For more information about UMass Chan Medical School and how to apply, visit the Prospective Students page.
