Kristin Kopelson, MS
Staff Nurse Practitioner
VA Greater Los Angeles Health System
Kristin Kopelson is a Nurse Practitioner and Residency Program Director at the VA Greater Los Angeles Health System and an Assistant Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Nursing. Kristin co-founded the VA Center of Excellence Interprofessional Academic Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team designed to train the next generation of health care professionals. This is the first academic NP residency focusing on homeless veterans. As a national VA leader, Kristin co-chaired the VA Office of Academic Affiliations Interprofessional Academic Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) Workgroup. She was named the 2015 Nurse Practitioner of Distinction by the California Association for Nurse Practitioners.

Presenting at the Nexus Summit:

Rationale: Homeless patients often have multiple interacting social, psychological, behavioral and medical needs. Interprofessional (IP) teams of relevant health care professionals have been shown to deliver high quality care for such vulnerable patients while also reducing the need for costly emergency and inpatient care. Our IP team of clinicians and trainees from six primary care and mental health disciplines has cared for 3000 homeless Veterans for the past four years. Our systematic approach to teamwork, humanism and clinician well-being has created a robust, empathetic and…