Cardiac ICU & Acute Care Nurse Practitioner

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Dr. Melissa Skoff, DNP, FNP-BC, AGACNP-BC, CCRN-CSC-CMC, CNE is a doctoral-prepared, dual board-certified Nurse Practitioner with extensive clinical and academic experience across cardiovascular surgery, critical care, acute care, family practice, hospitalist medicine, obesity medicine, and telehealth. Dr. Skoff holds dual board certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-BC) and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP-BC) — a rare combination that provides credible expert witness coverage across both primary and acute care cases. She additionally holds three critical care certifications: CCRN, CSC (Cardiovascular Surgery Certified), and CMC (Cardiac Medicine Certified). Her clinical background includes direct practice in cardiovascular surgery ICU at Mayo Clinic, with hands-on experience in ECMO, LVAD, and cardiac transplant patient management — among the most complex and high-acuity cases in medicine. Additional clinical experience spans hospitalist medicine, emergency department practice, urgent care, and full-time telemedicine in obesity medicine. Dr. Skoff is a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) and served as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she taught graduate-level advanced practice nursing. She has also served as adjunct and full-time faculty at the College of St. Scholastica. Her academic career spans more than a decade of graduate NP education, including direct supervision of clinical students. She is an accomplished national and international speaker, delivering monthly clinical practice guideline updates and board examination preparation to nurse practitioners across the United States, and serving as a keynote presenter at international nursing conferences. Attorneys consistently find that her communication style translates directly to expert witness work: she is precise, concise, and composed under pressure — able to explain complex clinical concepts clearly to judges and juries without sacrificing accuracy or credibility. A peer-reviewed published author, Dr. Skoff brings the same rigor to written expert reports — producing clear, well-organized, and defensible documents that are easy for legal teams to work with. She is known as a collaborative and responsive professional who understands the demands of litigation timelines. She holds 25+ active state NP licenses and brings unique operational expertise in multi-state telehealth practice and nurse practitioner scope of practice across jurisdictions. She is an active legal nurse consultant (Healthcare Hustle LLC) and a doctoral-prepared APRN with a clinical quality improvement background in healthcare directive compliance. Dr. Skoff is available for chart review, expert opinion, written reports, deposition, and trial testimony in cases involving cardiovascular surgery, critical care, acute care, hospitalist medicine, nurse practitioner standard of care, telehealth practice, obesity medicine, and multi-state NP licensure matters.