DUARTE, Calif., Nov. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prolacta Bioscience®, the world’s leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products, is proud to announce that one of its clinical thought leaders Terry S. Johnson, NNP-BC, ASPPS, CLEC, MN, has been selected for a Neonatal Nursing Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN). Neonatal nurses like Johnson provide specialized care for newborns facing serious health challenges in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Each year, the NANN Lifetime Achievement Award goes to an individual who demonstrates a longstanding commitment to the field of neonatal nursing and, in doing so, has a profound impact. Praised by industry peers as being an advocate for progressive neonatal care and as a speaker who remains informed and inspiring, Johnson has been serving as Prolacta Bioscience’s director of education and professional development since 2014.
“Terry’s leadership and dedication to helping the smallest patients is truly unrivaled,” said Scott Elster, president and CEO of Prolacta Bioscience. “We are so proud to have her as a part of the Prolacta family, and we join with the NANN in commending her lifetime dedication to neonatal nursing.”
Johnson spearheads Prolacta’s educational initiatives on the use of an exclusive human milk diet and the benefits of 100% human milk-based nutritional products in premature infants. Connecting with both advanced and novice health practitioners, Johnson helps clinicians understand best neonatal nutrition practices to reduce the risk of life-threatening complications — which in turn saves healthcare dollars1 — as well as enable catch-up growth without increasing the risk of metabolic problems that may jeopardize health later in life.2
Johnson was presented with this honor at the annual NANN conference in New Orleans in October, where she also delivered the opening general session’s keynote presentation. A nationally recognized neonatal expert and speaker, Johnson earned her nursing degree at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, and her certificate in neonatal nursing from All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Later, she obtained a master’s in nursing with a specialty in child-health nursing from the University of Florida at Gainesville. She worked as a neonatal nurse at UF Health Shands Teaching Hospital at the University of Florida and The Tampa General Hospital, as well as for Pediatrix Medical Group in Sunshine, Florida. Johnson was the coordinator of the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Certificate Program at Johns Hopkins Medicine at All Children’s Hospital. Before coming to Prolacta, Johnson ran Lodestar Enterprises Inc., which she founded with the goal of providing educational, professional and consulting support in the NICU nursing space.
About Prolacta Bioscience
Prolacta Bioscience® Inc. is a privately held life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk®. Prolacta is the world’s leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products that are changing the standard of care for extremely premature infants. In addition, the company is exploring the therapeutic potential of human milk across a wide spectrum of human diseases, including applications for infants requiring surgery for congenital cardiac and gastrointestinal disorders. Operating the world’s first pharmaceutical-grade human milk processing facilities, Prolacta leads the industry with the highest quality and safety standards for the screening and testing of donor milk. Prolacta is a global company with headquarters in Duarte, California, and can be found online at www.prolacta.com, on Twitter @prolacta, on Instagram @prolacta_bioscience, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/prolacta and LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/prolacta-bioscience.
1 Ganapathy V, Hay JW, Kim JH. Costs of necrotizing enterocolitis and cost-effectiveness of exclusively human milk-based products in feeding extremely premature infants. Breastfeed Med. 2012 Feb;7(1):29-37. doi: 10.1089/bfm.2011.0002.
2 Visuthranukul C, Abrams SA, Hawthorne KM, et al. Premature small for gestational age infants fed an exclusive human milk-based diet achieve catch-up growth without metabolic consequences at 2 years of age. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2019 May;104(3):F242-F247. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2017-314547.