Certified nurses raise the bar

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

After a nine-year career in the U.S. Air Force, Paul Plowman pivoted to a new passion – nursing.

In 1998, he joined the team at Riley Hospital for Children and has been here ever since, most of that time working in the Burn Unit.

“I like helping people, and I like the fast pace,” he said. “And it’s good to see kids from start to finish. You see them at the worst time, then you watch their progress and see them walk out, and that’s a good feeling.”

Plowman is among several nurses in the Burn Unit and hundreds throughout the hospital who have accepted the challenge of becoming certified nurses, demonstrating an extra level of commitment and leadership in their chosen field.

Other certified nurses on the unit include Angela Seitz and Sharon Albright. Kelly Rowls is another certified nurse who moved from Burn over to inpatient rehab recently but still picks up occasional shifts in the Burn Unit.

In recognition of Certified Nurses Day today (March 19), we are spotlighting a few of Riley’s certified nurses, who share why certification is important to them. Certification in a specialty area like pediatrics, burn, emergency medicine or critical care is the formal recognition of a nurse’s expertise, commitment and excellence in patient care in that specialty area.

Nurses build on their bachelor’s degree in nursing with additional skills, verified through a certification exam.

Albright, who started as a student nurse in 1992, graduated as a registered nurse the following year and has been at Riley ever since, eventually achieving her certification in pediatrics nursing.

As a student, she didn’t think she would ever go into pediatric nursing, but her experience with adult care as a student nurse changed her mind.

“When I came to Riley for an interview, I was sitting in the atrium and I told my husband, ‘This is where I want to be.’ Kathy McGregor (former burn unit clinical manager) interviewed me, and she was crazy enough to hire me,” Albright recalled with a grin. “It was a whole new world for me.”

Albright went on to soak up all the knowledge she could, and now she works to share that expertise with younger nurses.

“My role now is to mentor them to be successful and independent,” she said. “I can step back but still stand beside them to help.”

Seitz, a former Margaret Martin Roth Award winner and DAISY winner, has been a nurse for three-plus decades, most of that time on the Burn Unit.

Like her peers throughout Riley, the preparation for the certification exam was well worth it, she said.

“I became a certified pediatric nurse to be able to learn and gain experience in my patient population.”

For these nurses and others, certification is important because it signifies a commitment to professional growth, as well as a high level of competency. Certification affirms advanced knowledge, skill and practice to meet the challenges of modern nursing.

Plowman, certified as a burn nurse, said it can be a challenge to stay current on best practices, so it’s worthwhile to go the extra mile to become certified. He’s become so proficient that he actually contributes to the writing of the exam by submitting questions.

“I encourage other nurses to get certified in burn or other areas to stay current,” he said.

Riley is Indiana’s only American Burn Association-verified burn center dedicated to serving children.

Photos by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org