Meet Piper Buersmeyer
2023 Nursing Excellence Award Recipient
Photo: Eleanor Lee,PhD, ARNP (left) presenting the 2023 Nursing Excellence Award to Piper Buersmeyer, PMHNP-BC, ARNP (right) at the 2023 Annual Conference
Piper Buersmeyer, PMHNP-BC, ARNP, is a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner over the lifespan and co-founder of Med Rx Partners and TMS NW.
Piper is a fierce advocate for PMHNPs at the state and national levels. Her efforts were recognized by receiving the AAPPN Nursing Excellence Award in 2023.
Through her group practice in SW Washington, she hires PMHNPs and trains them with the goal of cultivating leadership and overall nursing excellence.
Piper’s efforts go beyond her practice. She successfully supported state approval to include TMS in the ARNP scope of practice. She has also advocated for TMS reimbursement to ARNPs with insurance companies.
She has served as At-Large Board Member for AAPPN and on the Membership and Legislative committees. Nationally, she volunteers at the national level with the Clinical TMS Society and is currently President-Elect for the WA APNA Chapter. She is pushing boundaries to increase ARNP acceptance in physician-dominated settings by setting an example of PMHNP competency and expertise that will benefit the profession.
Piper is an early-mid-career professional who has done more than many of us might achieve in a lifetime of practice .
What inspired you to be a nurse?
I was always fascinated by all things medical from a very young age. I knew I would be in healthcare, but didn’t know I would be in psychiatry just like my Dad. Both my parents are in the medical field, so it came naturally to me.
In college, I was fully on the pre-med track and wanted to be a fertility specialist. However, as time went on and I understood the culture of medical school, I knew it wasn’t for me. I switched majors to nursing, transferred schools and started over.
Being a part of someone’s healing or dying journey is a privilege and is something I feel driven to do.
Tell us a little about your journey to become a PMHNP.
I worked as a psychiatric technician for one year and quickly learned I loved the field. I attended the University of Utah for nursing school and then applied to PMHNP school at Oregon Health & Science University. I worked nights at the Portland VA on the surgical floor (shout out to 9C!) throughout graduate school and for two more years. I learned so much!
You are involved with two distinct practices. Tell us about them.
I started my private practice in 2014 and discovered my love for running businesses. I served my clients for five years before I expanded my private practice in 2019 to what is now Med Rx Partners.
Med Rx Partners provides rapid access to medication management throughout Washington and Oregon.
It takes a bit to find the right team, but when you do it changes everything. The Med Rx PMHNPs who serve the community are inspirational people and incredible providers. I love working alongside them and they inspire me daily. The Med Rx administrative team is absolutely stellar. The energy, vibes, efficiency and talent of our team is impressive and I look forward to working everyday.
I have gained a team in both Med Rx Partners and TMS NW of incredibly diverse, intelligent and kind humans that motivate me to be my best self everyday and have been given the gift of seeing how much they inspire each other as well.
In 2017, I co-founded TMS NW, which provides transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment resistant depression, OCD and smoking cessation. We were the first clinic in Clark County to provide deep TMS and one of the first companies to provide Spravato treatment.
There have been many growing pains with TMS NW. But has been a gift to work alongside our team of PMHNPs and TMS/Spravato Technicians to provide life changing care for our community. Our team provides a level of care that is difficult to put into words, but if you’ve ever seen us work our magic, you know! TMS NW has created and maintained sound ethical and clinical standards for TMS care and we are proud of what we do.
What have been some of the biggest rewards of your career?
I am most proud of following my moral compass, being authentically me and recovering after incredibly difficult challenges over and over again.
I have been told I’m not everyone’s cup of tea and I’m finally okay with it and have embraced it. I am an incredibly devoted and loyal person and do my best in everything I do.
I may not always get it right even with good intentions, but I keep trying.
The second thing I’m most proud of is continually fighting for nurse practitioners to be able to provide care in our communities within our scope of practice. Through my efforts, I have been able to get Optum, Pacific Source and Aetna to change their TMS policies to allow PMHNPs to provide independently. I’m still working on others.
I have been advocating for sweeping change in how TMS is provided across the nation and will continue this goal.
I assisted Providence’s medical director in writing their Spravato policy and have been working with the Clinical TMS Society for 4 years to be inclusive of PMHNPs.
Most recently, the Clinical TMS Society Membership Committee passed all three of my proposed motions to change verbiage, policies and require one Board position to be a PMHNP. It took one and a half years of work to get the motions onto the next step, but it is done!
What is the one thing you would like to tell all nurse practitioners?
Be curious. Assume the best in each other. If you have concerns or worries, directly communicate and try to find common ground. Be willing to show vulnerability and be real.
You are not alone in the struggles of our role. There’s room at the table for everyone. We are in this together.
Fun facts about Piper
- As a kid, she loved school, playing tennis, skiing, traveling with her family to the lake.
- She graduated valedictorian from Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho.
- She is a single mom of 6-year-old triplets, and co-founded TMS NW when she was six-weeks postpartum with her triplets!