Monika Brown, WHNP

Biography

Building trust in the field of gynecologic cancer care                                                 

Women’s health nurse practitioner Monika Brown believes her true calling is caring for patients living with gynecologic cancers.

Her first experience in the field was working as a registered nurse in the operating room, where she was part of numerous surgeries to help patients with malignancies in their reproductive organs. It was an experience that led Brown on the path to her role as an NP specializing in detecting and treating cancer in women.

“When I decided to become a nurse practitioner, gynecologic oncology was my first and only choice,” she says.

So, she pursued a master’s degree in nursing from Old Dominion with a women’s health concentration. She earned that degree as well as a bachelor’s in nursing from ODU and a registered nursing diploma from the Sentara School of Health Professions. She took her education and pursued a career that took her to health systems in Hampton Roads and the Richmond area.

Then she joined the Women’s health team at VCU Health and VCU’s Division of Gynecologic Oncology, where she does pre-surgical assessments on patients with ovarian, endometrial, cervical and vulvar cancer, performs well woman exams, interprets lab results and provides authorizations for imaging scans, chemotherapy and surgeries.

Brown works with patients from the moment they enter the care of both her and her physician colleagues. And she’s there from diagnosis through to the time after they undergo a hysterectomy, laparoscopy or other procedure to fight their cancer. She sees patients at VCU Health’s Stony Point campus and at the Adult Outpatient Pavilion in downtown Richmond. 

She emphasizes the importance of regular Pap smears to detect cervical changes early on in order to prevent abnormalities from developing into cancer.

Brown considers each person she treats — along with their family members or friends — as part of the team in fighting cancer. “I’m here to create an empowering and open environment for patients and their families,” she says.

That includes honest conversations with patients about the health challenges they face and about their treatment plan. “The foundation of my care is trust and communication,” she says. “Once that’s established, we can achieve the best results together.”