Tricia West, MBA/HCM ’04
Owner of P.J. West & Associates Inc.

PJWA, which West founded in 1980, is composed of licensed health professionals whose mission is to provide medical consultation to the legal community based on the foundations of ethics, competence and excellence. As CEO, West leads the firm in providing medical and nursing expertise to attorneys involved in medical-related cases. “We conduct extensive medical legal research, review medical records and provide expert testimony in all specialty areas of medicine,” explains West.

From apprentice to expert

West wasn’t always sought after as an expert witness. As a rookie nurse with her associate degree, she started working in the critical care unit of a hospital in Santa Monica, California. There, she cared for the hospital’s sickest patients, including those recovering from open heart surgery. “Next to the intensive care unit was a two-bed, hospital dialysis unit, and I was always very interested in what they were doing there,” says West. “So I started asking questions and learning about it.”

One day, she went to visit a friend who was in the hospital, coincidentally with kidney problems. West walked by the dialysis unit, stopping to talk to the staff there. “By the time I left the hospital, they had offered me a job,” she remembers, laughing. For years, West worked in the dialysis unit, using both her critical care skills and her knowledge of dialysis to provide patients with comprehensive care.

Embracing entrepreneurship

When she decided to return to school to pursue her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, West realized she had to find a way to earn a living. Because of her experience as a bedside nurse, she knew that when the hospital was short-staffed, they could call a service to get extra help. In the dialysis unit, though, that wasn’t an option due to the highly specialized nature of the work. “I saw a need that wasn’t being met,” she says. West’s answer? PJWA. “We started out providing chronic dialysis unit relief staffing with specialized dialysis registered nurse and patient technicians. Then we moved to doing acute dialysis treatments at hospitals all over California.” West quickly formed a pool of medical professionals from which she would draw when a client called needing temporary help. “If no one else was available, I would go in at 5 a.m. to open a unit,” she says. “Then, when another nurse came in at 9 a.m. or so, I would leave and go to school.” West continued this way throughout her bachelor’s degree program. Eventually, West would open her own dialysis facility with an emphasis on training patients for home hemo and peritoneal dialysis.

Forging ahead

Today, PJWA boasts a network of 250 nurses in a broad range of specialties, with a focus on legal nurse consulting, dialysis, case management, and patient and family education, among other things. As a legal nurse consultant, West brings her clinical skills, decades of experience, education and training to bear as she works to advocate for the standard of care. “You have to look at each case with clean eyes as the facts unfold,” she asserts. “That is what is important.”

In 2002, she returned to school once again to pursue her MBA/HCM from University of Phoenix. “I had wanted to do it for a long time, but I just kept talking about it,” West says. “I could have started my degree program and been done with it by the time I enrolled.” She is glad she finally did because the benefits to her work at PJWA are substantial. “When it comes down to it, this is a business,” she says. “You have to put on your business hat and make business decisions.”

When she’s not in CEO mode, West is involved in an array of professional associations and community-centered volunteer work. Despite carrying a load that would overwhelm most people, West takes it all in stride. “I like doing different things,” she says. “It just works for me.”

Of all the myriad roles she plays in her life, the most satisfying part for West is, simply put, helping people. “That is where my passion is,” she reveals. “I want to see people get the best care they possibly can.”

An author, to boot

Tricia West can also add “author” to her résumé.
She recently published chapters in the following two books:

Legal Nurse Consulting Practices
Hyperbaric Nursing and Wound Care