Community health nurse helps patient realize goal of publishing book

Over 30 years ago, Marc Townsend started writing a book about the meaning of everything. This spring, a UCHealth nurse helped him get it published.

Townsend brought the manuscript in a wrinkled McDonald’s bag to Andrea Hooley, RN care coordinator with Medicaid Accountable Care Collaborative (MACC) team at UCHealth.

“Only she could help me do it,” Townsend said.

The book, “The Truth about God and the Universe the Basics,” is available on Amazon. It covers topics such as physics, metaphysics and astronomy.

Hooley has worked with Townsend since 2017. He has schizophrenia, and he needed help navigating health care. Hooley supports him with coordinating appointments and arranging transportation, serving as a bridge between doctors.

“Despite the schizophrenia and the symptoms that come along with that, you know that he’s a highly intelligent man,” Hooley said. “He has his own way of seeing and articulating the world and the kind of science I don’t understand.”

She said that when he showed her the manuscript, he also brought along a scanned version on a zip drive. She called a local library and learned that most self-publishing is done via Amazon. But the necessary email address and cell phone – for two-factor identification – weren’t immediately available to Townsend, a septuagenarian who mostly hadn’t caught up with the digital age.

Through a series of office visits, Hooley helped him complete the process. And on April 17, he got to hold the book in his hands.

“It was a lot of hard work – doing the work to get it published,” Townsend said, adding that so far, he’s received positive reviews.

The MACC, part of UCHealth Community Health Improvement, supports patients who have complex behavioral health care needs or who have difficulty managing chronic conditions.

Hooley previously was a float pool nurse with UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital. She recognized how overwhelming the hospital experience can be for people on Medicaid, and how difficult it can be to remember instructions or obtain medications.

“I wanted to have long-term relationships with patients to see if that was effective,” Hooley said.

After about four years caring for patients in the hospital at PVH, she began supporting transitions of care with UCHealth Family Medicine Center residents before joining MACC in 2018.

Stephen Thompson, manager of care coordination programs, said Hooley’s work to support patients is exemplary.

“She is clinically trained as an RN, but beyond that, has a special ability to connect with patients of all types, has a keen understanding of social determinants of health and how they play into health outcomes, is consistently professional and highly engaged, and — as evidenced with this client story — goes above and beyond in her role with MACC for her clients as a matter of routine,” Thompson said.

Hooley said the book was a “fun goal” to pursue with Townsend.

“Usually the goals are like managing a health condition or connecting with certain providers. It’s a very gratifying role, because you get to see things through when people engage,” she said. “I’ve always had a heart for this patient population.”