Dayna Tillis, AGACNP-BC

Advanced practice provider Dayna Tillis is a board-certified adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner and critical care registered nurse. She earned her undergraduate degree in nursing at the University of Texas at Austin and her master’s degree in acute care nursing practice at Texas Woman’s University, where she was named the Outstanding Masters Nursing Student.

Raised in a medicine-oriented family, she developed a respect for taking care of patients, deepened by the experience of her mother’s battle against breast cancer when Dayna was only eight. Before becoming a nurse practitioner, she worked as a registered nurse in the cardiovascular intensive care unit of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and the cardiac catherization laboratory at Houston Methodist Hospital. She previously practiced as an Advanced Heart Failure Nurse Practitioner at Memorial Hermann in the Texas Medical Center for 3 ½ years.

She has extensive experience in caring for inpatients with advanced heart failure and managing patients after complex cardiac catheterization procedures and surgery. She believes in a team approach with the patient at the center and forefront of the team. She individualizes care to her patients' personalities and their emotional responses to their situations. An empathetic patient advocate, she aims to be a good listener and uses that knowledge to build trust and comfort. Even though most of her interactions with patients occur at difficult points in their disease processes, she enjoys being part of the journey to recovery.

Dayna is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and has published in Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal.

She loves spending any extra time with her baby daughter, who reminds her to enjoy life's every moment. She also enjoys reading, exercising and travelling.