SPECIAL HONORS: Nurse Practitioner
Andrea Funai, nurse practitioner at Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists, shares a smile with Ralph Mayton. (Photo by Jay Paul)
When Andrea Funai was 13, she was sent to the emergency room after a car accident.As she lay in a hospital bed, she watched the nurses at work and saw what would become her passion. She was driven from that young age to pursue nursing —not only to help heal, but to teach and give back.
Funai has been a registered nurse practitioner for 10 years, but the climb to her current position involved years of long medical shifts and part-time nursing classes. She earned her undergraduate nursing diploma at the Richmond Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1984 and went back to school — twice — to the Medical College of Virginia to get her bachelor’s in nursing and her nurse practitioner’s degrees, while training in hospitals around Richmond and Mechanicsville. In 2007, she began working as a nurse practitioner with Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists.
Much like a doctor, Funai sees patients, performs tests and diagnoses illnesses. She also serves as an educator. “The doctors don’t have time to spend with the patient, so I get to really understand these people,” she says. “I have a knack for speaking the patient’s language.”
Funai uses diagrams, drawing pictures and even demonstrating with toys to help a patient learn about a condition and, more importantly, how to prevent it. Prevention is a priority in a nurse practitioner’s daily work, as many doctors leave it up to them to educate patients on how to stay healthy.
Funai has been a preceptor, a working teacher and mentor, for a number of nurse practitioner students throughout the years, mainly helping students from colleges across Virginia. “It’s hard for these nurses to fully become [nurse practitioners], and I try to help,” she says.
According to colleagues, her passion for helping others is only matched by her humor. “She always has an icebreaker for her patients,” says Paula Furton, a nurse coordinator with Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists who has worked closely with Funai for 20 years. For Funai, humor is a vehicle to reach patients on an intimate level. “I like to throw in a joke or two when I work with the patients, if it helps,” she says.
Funai has found her drive and determination to be her biggest career asset over the years. It was that same spirit that helped Funai continue her education, even as she worked three jobs and was married and raising two children. “I always say, ‘Don’t let up,’ ” she explains. “I don’t give up on anything.”
