Sara R. Hopkins, FNP-BC, CNOR, joined Shelbourne Knee Center in April to help ensure that all patients receive efficient, high-quality care. Hopkins, a nurse practitioner with extensive experience in both orthopedics and surgery, is assisting orthopedic surgeon Rodney Benner, MD. She and Dr. Benner work together in the OR and in the clinic.
Dr. Benner’s practice, which focuses on non-surgical treatment of knee osteoarthritis, total knee arthroplasty (TKA), revision TKA, and arthroscopy and ligament reconstruction, has grown significantly since he joined Shelbourne Knee Center in 2018. “I’m here to make the care more efficient for our patients,” says Hopkins, who grew up in Indiana.
Increasing Efficiency
In the OR, Hopkins is Dr. Benner’s first assist, preparing for procedures, anticipating Dr. Benner’s needs during those procedures and performing technical tasks such as closing incisions. She also sees patients in the hospital and helps prepare discharge paperwork so that patients can go home sooner.
Once Hopkins completes the orientation program with Dr. Benner, designed to ensure that she thoroughly understands Shelbourne Knee Center’s protocols and philosophy, she will be seeing some patients on her own. Hopkins will manage non-surgical patients and consult with Dr. Benner about these patients as necessary, and also help him care for surgical patients. She’ll also handle some post-op appointments.
A Focus on Relieving Pain
Hopkins is glad to be part of an orthopedics center that puts relieving patients’ pain, not surgery, first. “We’re here to help patients, to relieve their pain. I love that ‘you need surgery’ isn’t the first thing that Dr. Benner and Dr. Shelbourne say to patients. We focus on how to improve motion and decrease stiffness first.”
Hopkins’ interest in orthopedics started when she was an undergraduate at Indiana University and worked as a student athletic trainer. But she didn’t pursue a career in nursing and orthopedics until several years later, after she earned her sociology degree and worked as a computer programmer in North Carolina.
When Hopkins’ grandmother became terminally ill, she moved back to Indiana and began spending a lot of time at the hospital. “The nurses were my heroes and my grandmother’s heroes,” she says. Hopkins went back to Indiana University, where she earned her nursing degree. During a rotation in the OR, she discovered that she loved surgery. She became a certified operating room nurse.
Experience in Surgery and Orthopedics
For the next 14 years, Hopkins worked mostly as a surgical nurse in orthopedics at several hospitals and two orthopedic practices in Indiana. She spent a few years in California as a travel nurse for American Mobile and as a nurse at a hospital there.
By 2015, Hopkins was ready for new challenges. She enrolled in the family nurse practitioner program at the University of Indianapolis. While working full time and raising a family, Hopkins earned her master’s degree. She worked briefly for a dermatology practice while looking for a job in orthopedics.
“Everybody in Indiana knows the Shelbourne Knee Center. This is my dream job,” she says.
For more information about orthopedic care by Dr. Benner and Sara Hopkins, call 888-FIX-KNEE.