Tisha Barzyk is an Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Certified Wound Specialist, and Certified Wound Care Nurse – Advanced Practice. She has been active in healthcare since 1998 where she entered the field of nursing as a registered nurse. She received her Master of Science in Nursing in 2007 and a Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2012 both from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. Tisha has experience in medical, surgical, intensive care, emergency care, orthopaedics, vascular medicine, advanced wound management, and hyperbaric medicine.
Tisha spent the first nine years of her career working as a bedside and charge nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in a Level 1 Trauma Center where she gained extensive knowledge in multiple areas of medicine as well as the treatment of acute wounds. In 2007 she obtained her certification as a nurse practitioner and transitioned into care of orthopaedic trauma patients at the Vanderbilt Orthopaedic Institute. During the next five years Tisha gained valuable knowledge related to the musculoskeletal system in relation to wound healing and developed protocols for acute surgical wound management and complications, care of acute and chronic wounds with soft tissue loss, and diagnosis and treatment of wound infections during her pursuit of her doctoral degree. Following graduation with a Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2012, she published a wound care application making the basics of wound care accessible through smartphone technology aimed at improving wound care education for residents in an academic medical center.
In 2012, Tisha began collaborating with a vascular surgeon at several Middle Tennessee hospitals where she gained extensive knowledge in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with arterial and venous disease. The knowledge and experience have been vital in advancing her wound care career given the prevalence of these disease processes in chronic wound care. In 2014, Tisha began working full time in advanced wound care as a wound care specialist performing patient consultations in acute and post-acute care settings.
In 2016, Tisha founded Integumetrix as an advanced wound care consulting group which employs nurse practitioners and physician assistants to improve patient access to advanced level wound care in acute and post-acute care settings. Tisha continues to provide advanced wound care consultations and serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Clinical Officer for Integumetrix. Tisha also serves as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant providing expert witness services involving wound care litigation and is a national speaker and consultant on advanced skin and wound care.