Debbie is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a certified hospice and palliative care nurse with over twenty-five years of nursing experience. She received her BSN from Florida State University, her Masters Degree in Adult Health-Critical Care from Emory University, and her Family Nurse Practitioner certification from the University of Missouri. In addition, she is completing another Post-Master’s program in End-of-Life Care at the George Washington University. She is on the faculty at Emory University in the School of Medicine, Geriatrics Department, as well as a guest speaker for the Emory School of Nursing. Ms. Gunter is also president of her own nursing consulting firm, developing and presenting various nursing seminars throughout the country.

 

In her current role of nurse practitioner with the Emory Healthcare System in Atlanta, Georgia, Debbie is part of the team that is responsible for providing palliative care expertise to hospitalized patients within two different hospitals. Some of the responsibilities include, pain and symptom management, goals of care discussions, withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments, advance care planning, staff education, and community education. Prior to this position, Ms Gunter had developed and managed a twenty-five bed in-patient hospice unit. Debbie had also previously served as a nurse practitioner in the long-term care setting, which involved the medical management and responsibility of multiple geriatric patients in two different nursing homes in the Atlanta area. Debbie has been recognized for her outstanding achievements in nursing by Who’s Who in American Nursing for multiple years. She has co-authored the cardiovascular chapter in, “Family Care Guidelines,” published in 1998 for nurse practitioners, as well as other multiple publications

 

Ms. Gunter is well known for her dynamic and innovative teaching style and her ability to present challenging concepts in a form that is interesting and easy to understand. She has presented over 600 nursing seminars in the critical care, medical surgical, geriatric, and palliative care nursing fields across the country.