Nurse Leader of the Year
Healthcare nurses facing burnout and strikes are standing up for safe staffing, safe working conditions, and patient care. They help improve care systems and lead.
The New York State Nurses Association is a union of 42,000 frontline nurses united together for strength at work, our practice, safe staffing, and healthcare for all. We are New York's largest union and professional association for registered nurses. Nurses face unsafe staffing, increased risk of violence, and unfair compensation. Refusing to work without a fair and safe workplace protects the health of patients and the future healthcare system. Patient safety and long-term staffing issues matter. The question of who is responsible for standing up for ongoing systemic issues is ongoing. Who takes responsibility for healthcare when it is not a great place for work? Individuals? Leaders? Patients? Often, the ones with the power to make decisions are not the ones facing real systemic struggle. This year, the nurses stood up for improvement.
Kenrick Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, FAAN, is an Assistant Professor Columbia University School of Nursing, and Columbia University Vagelos School of Physicians and Surgeons Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Cato’s program of research focuses on the mining of electronic patient data to support decision making for clinicians, patients and caregivers.
Vicky Tiase, PhD RN-BC is a nurse, informatician and Director of Research Science at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She supports a range of clinical information technology projects related to patient engagement and is passionate about the integration of patient-generated health data into clinical workflows. She serves on the board of AMIA, NODE.Health, and the CARIN Alliance and advocates for policy initiatives that provide patients and caregivers control over their health data. In 2019, she was appointed to the National Academy of Medicine Committee on the Future of Nursing 2030. Dr. Tiase also has a faculty appointment at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Division of Health Informatics. She completed her BSN at the University of Virginia, MSN at Columbia University and has a PhD from the University of Utah.
When an oncology nurse is diagnosed with cancer, she has to confront the most critical, terrified, and angry patient she’s ever encountered: herself. New York Times bestselling author Theresa Brown tells a poignant, powerful, and intensely personal story about breast cancer in Healing. She brings us along with her from the mammogram that would change her life through her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Despite her training and years of experience as an oncology and hospice nurse, she finds herself continually surprised by the lack of compassion in the medical maze—just as so many of us have. Why is she expected to wait over a long weekend to hear the results of her cancer tests if they are ready? Why is she so often left in the dark about procedures and treatments? Where is the empathy from caregivers? At times she’s mad at herself for not speaking up and asking for what she needs but knows that anyone labeled a “difficult” patient risks getting worse care. As she did in her book The Shift, Brown draws us into her work with the unforgettable details of her daily life—the needles, the chemo drugs, the rubber gloves, the frustrated patients—but from her new perch as a patient, she also takes a look back with rare candor at some of her own cases as a nurse and considers what she didn’t know then and what she could have done better. A must-read for all of us who have tried to find healing through our health-care system.
Sarah Warren is a registered nurse, writer, speaker, activist, and mental health advocate based in Florida. She has dedicated the last three years of her career toward working at the bedside, as well as advocating for better and safer working conditions for all healthcare professionals and the patients they care for. Through social media, Sarah has reached hundreds of thousands of people, sharing her story and stories of hundreds of healthcare workers across the country; shedding light on the realities they face each day. She highlights the inadequacies of the current state of healthcare and holds institutions accountable for unsafe conditions. Sarah has stood up for her coworkers by speaking to administrators face-to-face regarding unsafe working conditions. She is a voice for true change in healthcare.
Experienced executive and subject matter expert, providing advisory services and guidance for the EHR, integration of clinical technology, and clinical transformation services. Experienced in strategy development, health IT audit services, program governance, and systems evaluation. Strong clinical knowledge base, coupled with project leadership and innovative solutions that incorporate new technologies and evolving change management efforts. Ph.D. focused on technology acceptance with a minor in human factors and design thinking, Master's Degree focused in Health Systems Management and Healthcare Informatics from Loyola University Chicago. Skilled in IT Strategy, Management, Healthcare Management, Healthcare, and Business Process Improvement.