As a board-certified, acute-care nurse practitioner for the Illinois Neurological Institute (INI) Brain Tumor Center, Sarah Beam co-leads the team responsible for pre- and post-operative management of adult brain tumor patients. Providing direct patient care while coordinating specialist consultations, her focus is on patient and family education, striving to improve patients’ lives by facilitating the process by which they receive diagnostic and treatment information, increasing their access to care and providing various avenues for support.
Beam is directly involved in program development and expansion of the INI through a range of marketing initiatives, speaking engagements and collaboration among multiple healthcare systems. Eager to engage others in the field, she mentors medical students and presents regularly at regional and national meetings. Her reputation as a nurse precedes her, as she always takes time to do “the little extras” for patients and coworkers. These efforts have helped make the INI one of the highest-volume centers of its kind in the state, while bringing some of the most advanced treatments to the region.
Committed to field research, Beam gathers data on readmission rates and the factors involved in craniotomies to improve the care for brain tumor patients. She has also been involved in the coordination of clinical research trials with Illinois CancerCare. She facilitates the neuro-oncology special focus group within the American Association of Neurological Nurses and provides editorial input for the association’s clinical practice guidelines, as well as the November and the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing.
In her spare time, Beam is co-chair of the Peoria Walk to Defeat ALS. In 2014, she served as a national delegate to Advocacy Day in Washington, DC on behalf of the Greater Chicago Chapter of the ALS Association. She also coordinated the INI’s assistance to Washington, Illinois tornado victims through the Red Cross telethon. iBi
