Dr Michelle Acorn

Chief Nurse

DNP, NP PHC/Adult, MN/ACNP, BScN/PHCNP, FCAN, FAAN, GCNC, FFNMRCSI

Dr Michelle Acorn has served as the inaugural Chief Nurse with the ICN since May 2021, providing strategic and operational executive leadership expertise to advance and strengthen nursing and health policy.

She is a Doctor of Nurse Practitioner/Nursing Practice, dually registered as both a Primary Health Care and Adult Nurse Practitioner. Michelle is internationally certified as a Global Nurse Consultant.

Michelle was inducted as an inaugural Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing (FCAN), a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), and a Fellow of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (FFNMRCSI, Ad Eundem).

Dr Acorn’s diverse clinical expertise includes practicing in the Emergency, as a Hospitalist, innovating GAIN (Geriatric Assessment and Intervention Networks), and pioneering the most responsible provider (MRP) impacts of a NP–led model of inpatient hospital care and primary care in corrections.

In 2018, she modernized the Provincial Chief Nursing Officer role in Ontario, Canada to provide ministerial strategic nursing expertise as the technical and clinical advisor. She co-chaired the national Principal Nursing Advisors Task Force and acted as the Canadian delegate.

Michelle’s scholarship and knowledge translation are in textbooks, peer-reviewed articles, evidence informed toolkits, and quality improvement initiates. She is recognised for her leadership, mentorship, preceptorship and teaching locally to globally.