Nikki Marks
Ajmera Transplant Centre
University Health Centre

Nikki Marks has received nominations from several of her supervisors, UHN leadership and colleagues. Her work during the COVID-19 pandemic was highlighted at the Ajmera Transplant Centre magazine. Her work ethic and dedication to patients and colleagues are remembered in several of the testimonials below.

Thank you for your consideration in awarding Nikki.

“Nikki never turns away from a challenge – always ready to look at innovative ways to care for patients and willing to develop improvements in care and communication. Whether it’s developing a system to communicate remotely with lung transplant patients or monitoring COVID patients at home, Nikki always moves to the front line to lead for her team.” – Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, UHN’s Surgeon in Chief and Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program

“Over the past 18 months, Nikki has been an innovator, clinical leader and as a passionate advocate of COVID+ patients in ensuring they receive the best care possible.  As one of the NP leads of the Connected COVID Care clinic, a cornerstone of the COVID Integrated Care Pathway, she has helped to support thousands of patients who have been referred to the clinic through the five waves of the pandemic. Her leadership in this integrated model of care also helped in the delivery of the antiviral and monoclonal antibody infusion therapies that have helped to protect the most vulnerable patients in the city. Through this work, Nikki has used her clinical expertise to not just treat patients but be a critical clinical voice to develop these novel models of care. Specifically, she has authored order sets, developed clinical workflows and supported the rapid PDSA cycles to implement in the initial program in under four weeks.” – Shiran Isaacksz, Vice President, Altum Health and UHN Connected Care

“It is a great pleasure to write a testimonial for Nikki Marks for her nomination.  Nikki is a nurse practitioner at the Ajmera Transplant Centre at the University Health Network. She has dedicated her career to looking after lung transplant recipients who are one of the most complex patients in medicine.  During the COVID pandemic, organ transplant patients are one of the highest risk populations to get severe disease from COVID with hospitalization occurring in more than 50% of patients that contract COVID.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, Nikki took responsibility for ensuring that this vulnerable population gets the best COVID care possible. In the last two years, she has become our ‘go-to’ person for COVID care in transplant recipients. She virtually assessed hundreds of transplant outpatients with COVID. She went above and beyond her call of duty to provide them with the best care possible including arranging testing when it was not readily available, arranging early treatment, ensuring patients received home oxygen saturation monitors, communicating with physicians and nurses all over the province of Ontario and at times across Canada, to ensure that patients received treatment, advising patients to go to the hospital when they did not sound well, and working closely with the physicians.

Moreover, Nikki’s leadership skills are second to none. She has been a leader in the development of the monoclonal antibody clinic for transplant recipients with COVID. She has developed detailed processes for the early treatment of transplant patients with COVID. It is through her diligence that we have been able to prevent hospital admissions and reduced the burden on our healthcare system. Nikki epitomizes what it means to be a Nursing Hero.

I can attest that without her expertise it would have been impossible for our transplant program to look after COVID patients. She worked tirelessly 24/7 including holidays to make sure patients were taken care of. I am certain that her incredible efforts prevented hospital admissions and deaths. Nikki is a natural leader and problem-solver and is an inspiration not only to the nursing profession but all healthcare professions. I cannot imagine a better candidate for the Nursing Heroes award.” – Dr. Deepali Kumar, Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at UHN’s Ajmera Transplant Centre.

“Nikki Marks’ career in the nursing profession has been remarkable. She comes from multiple generations  (Grandmother, Aunt & Mother) of nurses dedicated to patients and helping those most in need.  Nikki’s day is never predictable and she balances being an accomplished triathlete, mother, wife and daughter in a way that is truly admirable.

She starts her day off typically participating in handover rounds where she receives critical information about Lung Transplant patients to help set the plan for the day.  As  Nurse Practitioner, she is the most responsible practitioner for patients who have just come from critical care following a lung transplant and patients who may be encountering signs of organ rejection or a complex infection.

With the most recent COVID-19 wave, the Ajmera Transplant Centre, who provide ongoing care to over 7000 transplant recipients, saw a surge in COVID-19 amongst the population.  Working along side infection disease specialist Dr. Deepali Kumar, Nikki virtually assessed and provided critical advice and treatment for early intervention of COVID-19 to prevent worsening of symptoms and acting to prevent the need for hospitalization.  At the peak of COVID-19, the ATC was seeing upwards of over 30 transplant patient consults.

Nikki’s impact on patients, their families, colleagues & learners demonstrates what care truly means in the word Healthcare.” – Joanne Zee, Senior Clinical Director, Ajmera Transplant Centre, Nephrology, Endocrinology & Hepatology, UHN

“Over the past 24 months, in addition to the many clinical contributions that colleagues have described, Nikki has truly enacted leadership and capacity building in her support of many peer NPs, which included the developed of a resource repository.    In building capacity in peers, this allowed for exponential growth of a network of expertise to build system capacity for the care of COVID and COVID recovering patients.” – Leanna Graham, Senior Director, Professional Practice & Policy, UHN

“I am pleased to support the nomination of Nikki Marks, MN NP for the Hospital News’ 2022 Nursing Heroes Award.

I have worked with Nikki as part of the multi-disciplinary lung transplant team within the Ajmera Transplant Centre at UHN. As a nurse practitioner working with this complex clinical population, Nikki has showed committed leadership in the development, implementation and evaluation of new care delivery models including transitions between acute, inpatient rehabilitation and ambulatory care.

Over the past three years we have collaborated closely as clinical leads on the development and implementation of an ambulatory virtual care strategy with remote patient monitoring to support care closer to home, facilitate surgical transition and support self-management following hospital discharge. Our early pre-pandemic work was rapidly scaled up to provide continuing quality care when on-site ambulatory visits were restricted during the various waves of COVID-19. In addition to this evolving care delivery model, she played an integral role in UHN’s Connected Care COVID Care team to provide symptom monitoring and follow-up in this emerging population.

In addition to her clinical role, Nikki has strong academic interests and has presented at international conferences and organized internal research days centered on patient-centred care across the care continuum. She is enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing program at the University of Toronto, which will further facilitate the creation and mobilization of knowledge into practice and lead healthcare system improvements.” – Lisa Wickerson, PT, Physiotherapy Discipline Coordinator, Clinician-Investigator, Toronto Lung Transplant Program, UHN

“Please consider Nikki Marks, Nurse Practitioner within the Ajmera Transplant Centre, UHN, for the Nursing Hero Award. I am very pleased to nominate her and believe she has demonstrated exceptional commitment to patients UHN wide, not only in the Transplant realm but also with countless people managing their COVID illness.

Nikki’s leadership over the past 2 years has been exceptional. As transplant activity decreased during the first major COVID wave, Nikki quickly pivoted to assist with the management of UHN COVID patients, particularly those at home, through outpatient clinics and assessments as well as volunteering to assist on the COVID unit. She helped develop strategies and problem solve to keep patients out the Emergency rooms and manage their illness at home. I have heard testimony from one family in particular who stated they felt very scared and alone until Nikki contacted them and helped them manage the situation remotely. They were so appreciative of the calm, clear and practical help that was provided. On top of this work, Nikki continued to practice with the Lung Transplant Team, managing both inpatients on the COVID unit and patients on the Transplant unit.

In the midst of developing COVID management strategies and assisting people with COVID, Nikki has been heavily involved in working groups regarding EPIC.  In these groups she has provided excellent feedback and suggestions, bringing forward issues not considered previously and contributing to solution focused problem solving.

Nikki has been a strong force in the education and mentorship of transplant nurses for many years and has continued this over the past hectic two year span. She is involved with Transplant orientation for new nurses as well as coaching and mentoring in the moment on the ward with nursing staff.  She has also has trained many NP students over the years.

Nikki is truly an inspiration to nurses at UHN. She is compassionate to patients, thoughtful in her practice, and a real change agent. She has lead several major change initiatives, such as the adoption of Clinical Message within the Lung Transplant group and other practices to improve patient care.

It would be easy to write more about the work that Nikki has contributed to UHN over the years and I would be happy to speak to anyone who has questions or would like to hear more.” – Susan Kiernan RN, MN, Nurse Manager, 7AB Transplant Unit, Ajmera Transplant Centre, UHN.