Temitope (Temi) Oseromi, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, became the nurse manager of GBMC Healthcare’s Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) in early 2022. She’s the only nurse manager overseeing two units, but Oseromi was also tasked with rebuilding a decimated MICU.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline medical staff were hit the hardest in terms of stress, uncertainty, and burnout, especially those nurses working in Intensive Care Units. As a result of post-COVID burnout, only three nurses were left on the unit.
From the ashes, Oseromi was a stabilizing, innovative, and compassionate leader who transformed the culture and energy of the unit in just 12 months. By engaging with nurse leaders on the units in a shared governance mindset, she has built trust within the teams and empowered them to lead.
Daily Nurse proudly names Temitope Oseromi Nurse of the Week for her stabilizing nursing leadership and abilities to recognize and mentor novice leaders while raising the bar of excellence for her clinicians.
“Temi has demonstrated for years that she can set a course heading for her teams and raise the bar of excellence for her clinicians,” says Stephen Benko, MSN, RN, CEN, Assistant Director of Critical Care, Medicine & Telemetry. “In addition, Temi has a keen ability to recognize potential in her teams, has mentored several novice leaders, and several promotional opportunities have presented themselves for her clinicians. Having Temi as a nurse leader, clinical expert, and partner has been integral to our recent successes.”
Oseromi worked tirelessly to recruit, retain, and grow ICU staff, spending hours interviewing people to ensure they were a good fit for the team. And she didn’t stop there. Oseromi has created a collaborative work environment between both the MICU and SICU. She communicates consistently with both units about staffing and other support needed to ensure smooth workflow and patient care.
Both units work closely and help each other if needed. Because of this, charge nurses now walk to opposite units to check in throughout the day, communicate about staffing for the oncoming shift, and see if nurses need to float to the opposite unit or if they need to share a secretary or tech.
This collaborative energy allows those working on the units to feel psychologically safe sharing ideas and concerns. Oseromi problem-solves alongside her team and co-builds the thought processes behind change. Not only does she leave space for change to happen, but she also encourages her team to think outside the box and come up with new ideas.
Oseromi is a consistent and caring leader who promotes a culture of compassion, fairness, and excellence in the ICUs. She advocates for her staff, identifies their strengths, and gives them opportunities to shine. Oseromi ensures qualified and interested team members are trained to charge, precept, and teach classes and quarterly simulations.
“Temi leads by example. She is empathetic and selfless, taking the time to understand and connect with staff,” says Kristin Feliu, GBMC ICU RN. “If there is a code on the unit, she is there, talking to the family, fetching supplies, or helping clean up after it is over. She does not ask others what she would not do herself. Temi consistently demonstrates integrity, competence, and commitment.”
Oseromi has risen to the challenging balance of strong leadership. She holds her staff to a high standard of excellence around patient care and collaboration and fosters a culture of openness, psychological safety, and lifelong learning. Oseromi is an exceptional leader who builds and mentors with intention and a human-first approach. GBMC Healthcare is grateful to have her on its staff.
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
In a significant development for mental health services in the military, U.S. Navy Lieutenant j.g. Lindsay Bender demonstrated strong leadership and empathy in her contributions throughout her military career, particularly at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This resulted in her being chosen to fill the critical leadership billet of Assistant Service Chief.
U.S. Army Col. Wendy Woodall, Walter Reed’s director of nursing, emphasized that “This role is typically for an O-3 or higher and GS-12,” acknowledging the significance of Bender’s assignment.
Additionally, in March 2024, Bender was accepted into the Uniformed Services University (USU) Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Doctor of Nursing Practice Program. This achievement and progress involved Bender’s leadership ability, empathy, and collaborative mentality.
Daily Nurse named U.S. Navy Lieutenant j.g. Lindsay Bender the Nurse of the Week for her outstanding contributions as a Navy nurse, including her caring nature, innovative mindset, clinical expertise, commitment to nursing excellence, and military mental health services.
While at Walter Reed, Bender took on multiple roles, notably serving as the Assistant Service Chief of a 20-bed medical-surgical unit and efficiently leading more than 60 military and civilian personnel. The George Mason University graduate understood the gravity of occupying a role usually reserved for higher-ranking individuals, crediting her success to the guidance received and her experience in nursing leadership.
“I feel very fortunate to have been selected to fill this role,” Bender remarked. “I owe a lot of gratitude to the mentors and leaders I’ve worked with throughout my career, who have helped shape me into who I am today.”
Recognizing her work as Assistant Service Chief as a continuation of her recent experience as a floor nurse, which influenced leadership decisions, Bender added, “Nursing is a team effort, and I approach each day as a unique opportunity to improve upon the previous day, with the awareness that influence can be felt throughout every level of the leadership structure.”
She also acknowledged her “floor experience” for providing a distinctive perspective when discussing unit operations and management with other nursing leaders, underlining the significance of a supportive and collaborative environment.
Additionally, Bender was a Patient Safety Advisor and ‘Super User’ for MHS GENESIS, the DOD’s new electronic health records system.
As a Patient Safety Advisor, Bender played a significant role in enhancing patient safety and quality improvement, fostering an environment of understanding and compassion essential for patient care.
Adapting to change, Bender led efforts during the MHS GENESIS implementation as a ‘Super-User,’ contributing to staff proficiency by linking traditional practices with new technology.
Committed to innovation and process improvement, Bender used her ‘why’ approach to revamp the nursing workflow for lab specimen handling across the directorate, improving policies and resulting in increased scanning compliance rates among nursing staff.
Bender’s dedication to military mental health services was further fueled by her personal experiences, leading to her pursuit of a degree in Psychiatric Mental Health from USU. This degree program begins this month.
“Throughout my career, I have encountered various stigmas and barriers toward seeking mental health care, which has fueled my passion for advocacy for change,” Bender explained. “This is why the opportunity to complete the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Doctor of Nursing Practice degree through USUHS is so exciting!”
Her advocacy was driven by recognizing the need among service members, including the challenges of military life and seeking mental health treatment.
“I hope to be an advocate for change and another person in the fight to increase mental health services for service members,” shared Bender. “The opportunity to attend USUHS and receive a top-quality education is life-changing, and I’m extremely grateful.”
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
We asked her about her work. What follows is our interview, edited for length and clarity.
How did you get interested in your particular field? What drew you to it?
Originally, I did not intend to become a rehabilitation nurse. In 2005, I graduated and obtained a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) certificate from the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC).
While searching for a job, I encountered Kernan Hospital, about 15 minutes from my residence. I submitted an application to work in the Stroke Unit, but the position was already filled. The manager assigned there forwarded my application to the Spinal Cord Unit manager, who granted me an interview and accepted me on her team. That is how my journey started as a rehabilitation nurse, and I have since developed a strong passion and commitment to working with spinal cord patients and families.
Explain briefly what you do. What types of patients do you serve as a spinal cord/multi trauma unit nurse? What do you provide for them?
In general, a rehabilitation nurse provides care for and assists patients in their progress toward recovery, self-care, and independence. The rehabilitation nurse works as part of a multidisciplinary team in setting realistic goals and achieving a treatment plan.
Over the past two decades, I have worked in the spinal cord unit, providing care for patients suffering from injuries related to the spinal cord and teaching and advocating for patients and families.
Did you need to get additional education for this position?
When I first started working in the spinal cord unit at what was then Kernan Hospital, I was a licensed practical nurse. After that, I successfully completed my studies to become a registered nurse.
When the opportunity to do on-the-job studies became available, I took advantage and completed a BSN degree at Notre Dame University of Maryland. I have since risen through various assignments/positions to Senior Clinical Nurse I and am now working to obtain certification as a rehabilitation nurse.
What do you like most about working in your job?
What I like most about working as a rehabilitation nurse is recognizing that the care and teaching I provide to patients and their families–plus the voice and advocacy I add–all combine to work for the healing process of the patients and their families.
One cannot help but feel fulfilled upon realizing that what may otherwise seem like a minor help given and a voice added can help patients regain and maintain their optimal health.
What are your biggest challenges?
Being a rehabilitation nurse is admittedly hard work and can present some challenges in managing the expectations of patients and their families.
However, where a nurse has the passion to care for their patients with a sense of commitment to serve others and provide care for patients with deep or long-term care needs, a rehab nurse can still find his or her work rewarding and satisfactory.
What are your greatest rewards in your work?
My greatest reward is working as part of a multidisciplinary medical team with goals to plan and follow treatment plans for patients and their families with positive patient outcomes.
Of course, a plus is when patients and their families are satisfied with my care and make extra effort to highlight my acts of service and compassion.
While it is challenging, working as a rehabilitation nurse can be rewarding and satisfying, especially when my patients come back for visits, recognize the nurses they worked with, and smile in appreciation for the care and teaching provided to them.
February 4th to 10th is National Burn Awareness Week, and Daily Nurse is recognizing the specialized work of burn nurses. Burn nurses are known for their exceptional skills, commitment, and unwavering dedication to patient care. They work tirelessly to treat individuals who have been affected by burn injuries and to advocate for burn injury prevention within their communities.
Meet Emily Werthman, PhD (c), MSN, RN, CBRN, the Burn Program Manager at The Johns Hopkins Burn Center. She is also a member of the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) board of directors for the 2024-2025 term and shares her insights on burn nursing as a specialized nursing practice.
-What are your title and credentials at The Johns Hopkins Burn Center?
Burn Program Manager
PhD (c), MSN, RN, CBRN
-How long have you worked there?
13 years
-What do you enjoy most about your role as burn program manager?
I love the detective aspect of my job: finding a problem, discovering its root cause, and then developing a plan to fix it. I also work with an amazing interdisciplinary team that makes it exciting to come to work every day.
-Talk about how you ascended to that role.
I started as a BICU nurse and loved our burn program’s research and quality aspects. I knew that burn nursing was where I wanted to practice, but I also wanted to further my career options by pursuing an advanced degree. After about 10 years at the bedside, the burn program manager position became available while I was obtaining my MSN in nursing education. I was so happy to be able to combine my love of research, quality, and bedside burn nursing knowledge into this role. I am also incredibly fortunate to work for a health system that encourages and supports its nurses’ continuing education so I can continue with my PhD.
-What inspired you to become a burn nurse?
My mother died in a house fire shortly after my college graduation. Knowing that her nurses were with her, providing the best possible care, inspired me to do the same for all the families and patients we care for here at the Johns Hopkins Burn Center.
–What associations are you a member of, and how have they helped your career?
I am an American Burn Association (ABA) member, serving as the lead nurse planner. I volunteer with the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN), serving as a CBRN Exam Construction Review Committee member, and have just been appointed to BCEN’s board of directors.
These roles have allowed me to work outside of my hospital system to impact the work of burn nurses nationally and internationally. My work with the ABA has allowed me to progress from member to committee member to lead nurse planner. Similarly, at BCEN, I started as an item writer and have continued to work within the organization to support its mission. Both organizations have provided opportunities for professional growth through networking and continuing education.
-What does a burn nurse do?
There is not a typical day in burn. We see patients at their worst on the first day they are injured, their best on the day they are discharged, and everything in between. Burn is unique because we know our patients and their families through one-on-one interactions during daily wound care sessions. A shift in the BICU or BWU will usually involve all your standard nursing interventions but with a healthy dose of specialized wound care, wound vac placement, dressing takedowns, and lots of psychosocial support for our patients and their families.
–Burn nurses are more than trauma care. Can you talk about the other types of care they provide patients?
Burn nurses genuinely care for the patient across the entire continuum from admission to discharge and then reconstruction procedures in the years following an injury. In addition to critical care, they provide outstanding psychosocial support to families and patients. Many burn nurses participate in prevention activities like outreach at local schools and partnerships with local firefighters.
-How do you become a burn nurse?
After graduating with a history degree, I returned to school to get my AS in nursing, eventually earning a BSN and MSN. I am currently preparing to defend my PhD dissertation, as well. I knew when I entered nursing school that burn nursing was my calling. I contacted the burn center for my senior honors project to arrange a guest lecture at my nursing school. I kept in touch with them after graduation so that they were aware of my interest in the burn center and to let them know when I applied for an open position there.
–Talk about the need for burn nursing and BCEN specialty certification.
I seek to effect change in the field of burn nursing as a subject matter expert, test question writer, and exam content review committee member for the CBRN exam. Specialty certification is an essential part of recognizing burn nurses’ unique work. As more hospitals move toward Magnet certification, standing with other certified nurses offers burn nurses the ability to demonstrate our commitment to quality care.
-What are the benefits of being a burn nurse?
Burn nursing is a challenging field. But it is just as rewarding as it is difficult. We see patients progress through their recovery, and through our work with the Burn Therapy Program, we continue to see them for years as they return to their lives.
–Talk about the reward of being a burn nurse.
The payoff is the outcome. When we see a patient with substantial burn injuries overcome their injuries and go on to live happy, successful lives, it makes all the long, hot days in a tub room worth it.
–Talk about being 1 of 12 expert nurses selected by BCEN to serve on the Burn Nursing Role Delineation Study Advisory Committee.
No other specialty provides you with a level of interaction with patients and their families, all while providing life-saving critical care. The burn nurse is truly the best representation of a holistic nurse that I know—integrating critical care with psychosocial care, wound care, focused systems assessments/interventions, and all that comes with the care of surgical patients. Being selected to help define what a burn nurse does was an honor. And to be able to work with some of my role models in burn care (Gretchen Carrougher and Katie Hollowed, in particular) was so exciting. To think that we could work together with burn experts from all over the country to help on our path to certification was life-changing.
–How does the committee’s work serve as a roadmap for nurses who sit for the CBRN exam?
In our work, we helped define what the burn nurse does, which helped define the parameters of the CBRN exam.
-Do you have anything else to add for Burn Awareness Week?
This year’s theme is preventing flammable liquid injuries, so I encourage people to check out the resources available at ameriburn.org to ensure they are following all appropriate safety measures!
The heart is a crucial part of our life and our world. There are songs about it, movies that focus on it—at least the love part, and without it, unlike other organs, we wouldn’t be able to survive.
We interviewed Caitlin Fetner RN, BSN, Cardiac nurse, University of Maryland Capital Region Health. (She’s also a proud military wife. Her husband is an officer in the U.S. Navy.)
What follows is our interview, edited for length and clarity.
Caitlin Fetner RN, BSN, is a cardiac nurse at the University of Maryland Capital Region Health
How did you get interested in being a cardiac nurse? What drew you to it? How long have you been doing it?
I got interested in cardiology when I was still in nursing school. I studied at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing. Of all the different topics I studied in school, cardiology was my favorite.
I got a job after graduation in a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and haven’t looked back since. It was there that I learned more in-depth about cardiology, including cardiac catheterization, atrial fibrillation, post-cardiac arrest, and open-heart surgery.
I started on the night shift, and on slow nights, we would all sit with our notebooks and study hemodynamics and how to manage cardiac patients, specifically bypass patients. I have been a nurse for seven years and have loved every minute. I currently work with open-heart surgery patients.
A cardiac nurse takes care of your heart. We make sure your heart has everything it needs to function appropriately. If it is not functioning as it should, we step in with different therapies to help it get back to where it needs to be. We serve patients whose hearts beat in irregular rhythms to patients who need open heart surgery—and everything in between. We provide medications that help keep the heart in rhythm; we provide teaching and education so when patients go home, they know what to do, and we provide strength and encouragement to help patients get out of bed and walk those days after surgery.
Did you need to get additional education for this position?
A BSN is the only educational requirement for this position, but there are different certifications you can get as a cardiac nurse, such as a CCRN and Critical Care Registered Nurse Certification. This certification requires a test that goes into more detail on how to care for ICU-level patients. After passing this exam, you could get a specific cardiac certification as well.
What do you like most about working as a cardiac nurse?
What I like most is the delicate balance we manage between the patient’s vital signs and the medications being given. Whether it is medications running as drips or giving oral medications, the nurse must always be aware of what’s happening and how to change the medications accordingly. The heart and its’ function are a beautiful balance, and I love the challenge of managing it all.
What are your biggest challenges as a cardiac nurse?
The biggest challenge is managing every detail—but it’s also what I love most. You must dot every I and cross every T and be on your toes all shift, but it’s worth it.
What are your greatest rewards as one?
My greatest rewards are getting the patients up to walk after surgery who thought they couldn’t do it or seeing the patients who have been down long roads and hospital stays finally get to go home. Also, I love talking to and getting to know my patients.
Every patient has a story, and everyone can learn something from everyone. You never know the things you can learn just by talking to someone.
Anything else that is important for our readers to know?
Cardiac nursing is not for the faint of heart. Cardiac nursing is checking vitals for the slightest changes every minute, measuring EKG strips every few hours, and managing multiple drips that, if they were to run out, the patient’s blood pressure could drop quickly.
The heart function, blood pressure, and volume status are all delicate balances that must be monitored closely. Cardiac nursing is busy and sometimes exhausting, but ever so worth it at the end of the day to see the sickest patients go home to their families once more. That’s what nursing is all about.
Delayna Watkins knows what it’s like to have a hot flash interrupt your life.
The Baltimore area nurse remembers being in the middle of a presentation to Maryland hospital executives when she suddenly couldn’t think straight and could tell the hot flash was coming.
Watkins, 53, is a nurse and menopause wellness practitioner. She runs a menopause support group and creates TikTok videos to bring attention to menopause symptoms, specifically vasomotor symptoms or VMS. She says the anxiety these symptoms, like hot flashes and night sweats, create results in women feeling like they have no control.
Daily Nurse honors Delayna Watkins as the Nurse of the Week for educating women about VMS, offering practical techniques for bringing down the intensity of hot flashes through her Women’s Wellness Lounge and in her free weekly support group Black Women in Menopause, an online Facebook community of more than 2,000 women in the “menosquad.”
African American women are 60 percent more likely to experience VMS, says Dr. Makeba Williams, an OB-GYN and associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis certified menopause practitioner.
And while, on average, women experience hot flashes for about seven years, for African-American women, they last an average of 10 years.
Watkins wants to reach out to that population, which she says has been overlooked.
“These women are not being heard,” says Watkins, who uses her TikTok account to put a fun—and sexy—spin on menopause. In one, she cools herself — seductively — using a “cute” pink fan: “It’s not about the hot flash itself — it’s about doing something cute. It’s about changing the narrative of it being something negative.”
She says her mission is to have the conversation so we can share experiences and not be afraid. Women need to know this is all part of the feminine cycle. “It’s part of our trajectory,” she says.
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
