Employer Relationships Manager
Play golf. It looks really fun!
A Newfoundland dog because they are impossible not to love!
If you could meet anyone dead or alive, who would that be?
My maternal grandfather
If you were stranded on island what 3 things would you want to have?
My dogs, a blanket and chocolate.
When I took my first job as an emergency nurse, about a year out of school, emergency medicine as a specialty was just beginning to develop. It was fun to be there at the start—to watch and participate and grow as an emergency nurse as the specialty evolved, and I have remained in emergency nursing and emergency medicine ever since.
For over 30 years, I worked as a bedside emergency nurse and served in several nurse leader and ED management positions. During the past 10 years working for T-System, a company that develops EMR systems specifically for EDs, I crisscrossed the country meeting with ED leaders and gaining a deep understanding of ED workflows and operations.
One interesting note is that I worked at the hospital I was born in, Sparrow Hospital, in Lansing, Michigan, for most of my 30 years as a bedside nurse. With over 100,000 visits per year, Sparrow is an academic, Magnet-recognized hospital whose emergency department/Level 1 Trauma Center has an integrated pediatric ED and a mobile intensive care unit (MICU), all of which I had the privilege to oversee during the last 6 years of my hospital career.
What will you be doing in your role as BCEN’s new Employer Relationships Manager?
I will be visiting and talking with ED nurses, nurse leaders and administrators all over the country to help them strengthen emergency nursing through board certification. I will have the opportunity to talk about the value of nursing and the extraordinary contributions certified emergency nurses make every day.
What excites you most about this job?Â
I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know ED leaders in their own environment. I’m excited to tell them about BCEN’s 5 certification programs and ensure they understand the value and impact of board certification for nurses and patients as well as for their departments and organizations as a whole.
This new position means BCEN will have more opportunities to talk one-on-one with nurse leaders and nurses about all the resources we offer, including our employer voucher program, to support nurses as they earn and maintain their specialty certifications.
Our goal is to make the case for employer support of board certification and get as many barriers out of the way so that every emergency nurse has a clear path to taking their certification exam, staying certified, and being successful, professionally and personally, throughout their career.
Read more about Kathy Mace and the newly created employer relationships manager position here.
