Michelle Zang, BSN, RN, is a Certified Nurse Case Manager and Cannabis Care Nurse Educator who helps bring cannabis care into everyday healthcare practice. In 2023, she developed a pioneering program within a health plan and insurance setting that combines two nursing specialties to support patients who use cannabis and experience complications related to their care. The program brings together symptom management, care coordination, treatment planning, cannabis education, harm reduction, and available health plan benefits through an interdisciplinary model designed for patients who have often encountered stigma or little clinical guidance.
The program continues to serve patients across the lifespan, from pediatric and pregnancy-related care through older adulthood, while also educating healthcare professionals about cannabis and the need for appropriate, informed treatment. Zang has extended that work into the professional literature as a contributing coauthor of the chapter “Cannabis Nursing Administration: U.S. Workplace Regulations and Cannabis Case Management” in Comprehensive Approaches to Cannabis Nursing. The chapter addresses nursing leadership, workplace regulation, cannabis case management, safety, quality, ethics, education, and the integration of cannabis nursing into healthcare systems.
Her advocacy also reaches beyond individual patient care. As a member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and its Policy and Government Affairs Committee, Zang helped advocate for Washington’s HB 2152, Ryan’s Law. The legislation was enacted in 2026 and requires hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice care centers to establish policies allowing qualifying patients with terminal conditions to use medical cannabis in those facilities beginning January 1, 2027. Her work reflects a larger goal: making sure patients who use cannabis are not pushed outside the healthcare system, but instead receive coordinated care, accurate information, and the same dignity afforded to patients using other therapies.
For Zang, that work is also deeply personal. Her commitment was inspired by caring for her mother, Lydia, who lived with dementia and used cannabis tea. Zang remembers that cannabis helped her mother remain comfortable, largely free of pain, and without the agitation and anxiety that can accompany the condition. That experience continues to shape her commitment to patients and families seeking compassionate, informed care.
Michelle Zang’s work demonstrates what patient advocacy can accomplish when lived experience is paired with nursing expertise and systems change. By building cannabis care into case management, educating healthcare professionals, advancing professional literature, and helping expand patient protections inside healthcare facilities, she is helping make cannabis safety part of healthcare rather than something patients must navigate outside of it.
“This work is inspired by my mother, Lydia, who passed from dementia and, through cannabis tea, was a pleasant patient who did not experience agitation and anxiety with this condition. Instead, she had a quality of life and was mostly pain free, exhibited by her sweet smiles and soft demeanor. I owe her to continue this work for patients like her.”
Michelle Zang is a strong ambassador for the Patient Voice Award because she turns lived experience into compassionate advocacy, practical nursing care, professional education, and policy change that keeps patients at the center.
Cast your vote for Michelle Zang, BSN, RN, for the 2026 Patient Voice Award!
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