A Nurse Manager's Passion For Leading Her Staff
Coming from a family of nurses, how one nurse's path prepared her for a role in management
Welcome to Nurse Ascent, a twice-weekly newsletter created by nurses for nurses. This week, we spotlight a nurse who is passionate about her role as a nurse manager. We also share the latest job opportunities and cover childhood vaccine safety, Planned Parenthood, and Medicaid cuts.
But first, who relates? 👯
Nurse Spotlight: Hillary Stamps, RN, BSN, CPAN, Progressive Care Unit (Telemetry) Nurse Manager
What I do for work
I am a Nurse Manager at Mercy Medical Center, located in downtown Baltimore City. The unit that I run is a Progressive Medical Telemetry unit. It’s a 30-bed unit. We care for everybody who needs our help, and we do so with dignity, compassion, and safety. I manage about 80 staff members, ranging from bedside nurses, bedside CNA techs (NSTs), telemetry monitoring staff, and unit secretaries (PSRs). We are one big, crazy, happy family. I support my staff with three main rules that I hold true. The first is patient safety, the second is patient dignity, and the third is to ensure that everyone is okay.
How I got here
It took me a while to decide on nursing, even though both my parents are nurses. My dad and I even attended nursing school at the same time, and he graduated one semester before me. Before that, I worked as a full-time body piercer, where I loved the procedural work and caring for people who trusted me. Encouraged by my mom and grandmother, I earned my BSN from Shepherd University, graduating at the top of my class and founding the Student Nurses Association.
Graduating in 2009 at the height of the recession made finding work tough. I relocated to DC, joined Medstar at Washington Hospital Center in the open-heart step-down unit, and commuted from Baltimore for a year. Eventually, I joined Mercy Medical Center in their Phase I recovery room, where I stayed for six years.
After my third child, I pursued a better schedule and discovered nursing informatics, later becoming the EPIC principal trainer for Perioperative & Anesthesia teams, training over 400 people for our go-live.
I then returned to bedside nursing and stepped into leadership. In June 2019, I became manager of two orthopedic recovery rooms and pre-admission testing. Four years later, I transitioned into my current role managing the Progressive Care Medical/Telemetry unit.
My varied experiences, commitment to quality care, and support from an incredible leadership team have prepared me well for this role, and today we have just a few full-time spots left on what has become an amazing team.
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More on Hillary Stamps, RN, BSN, CPAN
A day in my life
It can actually be hard to plan a routine day on our unit since each day always comes with its own surprises (aka, the stuff you can’t make up!) That said, since our unit is open 24/7, 365, I do my best to support both my day and my night shift teams. This can be challenging with an 8-hour shift; however, I am finding success by adjusting my schedule to either get in early or stay late- depending on the meetings/goals for the day. I do my best to prioritize while leaving room for fluidity to tackle issues as they come up.
On average, though, I'll begin my day by checking in with the charge nurse to see what key concerns need to be addressed and what opportunities could be taken to better our team’s day. My goal is to remain proactive rather than on my back heel, whether it’s ensuring supportive staffing or meeting preparation. The best part is, despite the unpredictability of my job and the ever-competing priorities, I absolutely love what I do!
What aspect of your job do you find most rewarding
I love watching people grow, whether it is nurses growing in their careers or patients growing in strength from their medical condition. I find that very rewarding.
My self-care routine (or what I do for fun, or to relax)
I really love being with my family and friends. I also love the outdoors; I once was a whitewater rafting guide, and I enjoy my spa days. Lately, I’ve been working a lot on meditation as well, which has been quite rewarding.
Headlines in Healthcare
Childhood vaccine safety
The US health agency is reviving a task force on childhood vaccine safety due to pressure from anti-vaccine activists. This reinstatement follows a lawsuit funded by the Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, which criticized the administration for not re-establishing the task force earlier.
Trump and Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood clinics are in jeopardy due to Republican efforts to defund the organization by removing it from Medicaid. In July, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill was passed, which prohibits Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements.
New medicaid cuts and rising healthcare costs
With nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts now approved, groups are stressing the importance of early identification of health destabilization and underscoring that improvements in education and health-tracking software are essential tools for reducing healthcare costs as Medicaid funding tightens.
Meet the author:
Renee DLamini
(RN, BSN, Writer)
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