Susan Jacobs RN, MS received her graduate degree in Pulmonary Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco. Initially Ms. Jacobs’ career focus was as a critical care nurse educator, including the development of a ‘Wean Team’ utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to facilitate weaning by managing symptoms of fatigue, anxiety and dyspnea. Later, she shifted her concentration to the outpatient setting and coordinated a Pulmonary Rehabilitation program with goals of decreased dyspnea, increased exercise tolerance, and improved quality of life in patients with both restrictive and obstructive lung diseases. She also was Project Director for an NIH R01 grant to examine outcomes of three different approaches to decrease dyspnea in emphysema patients using exercise and education.
She joined the Stanford Pulmonary Division in 1997 where she initially coordinated clinical research studies for patients with Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD). She is now a Research Nurse Manager, overseeing a variety of clinical staff and research activities across multiple pulmonary sub-specialties within the division. Ms. Jacobs’ career focus has always been on improving patient care with an focus on improving quality of life around oxygen use, dyspnea, cough, and social support. She works closely with the Pulmonary Fibrosis and Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) foundations on patient advocacy issues, develops patient education materials, provides educational seminars and webinars, and started the ILD and LAM support groups in 2005 which she continues to coordinate. She also works with patient groups to improve awareness and access to clinical trials.
Ms. Jacobs has been an ATS Nursing Assembly member since 1999 and created the Oxygen Special Interest Group in 2015 to specifically address the increasing patient reports of worsening oxygen services, including inadequate supply, faulty equipment, and lack of oxygen training and education. Subsequently, Ms. Jacobs was lead author on three key oxygen publications including the first national patient survey of almost 2000 supplemental oxygen users in the United States, the multidisciplinary ATS Oxygen Workshop Proceedings, and the ATS Clinical Practice Guideline on Oxygen Therapy for Adults with Chronic Lung Disease. Ms. Jacobs continues to chair the ATS Oxygen SIG – a multidisciplinary group whose impressively committed members all continue efforts to disseminate oxygen education for patients and clinicians, address inequities in care around patients not receiving adequate oxygen supplies, and move critical legislation forward on behalf of patients using supplemental oxygen.