Nurse Manager
University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital
My name is Bridget Berns and I currently reside in Iowa City, IA with my husband, 1-year old son and my goldendoodle. I am currently the Nurse Manager for the Stead Family Children's Operating Room. I have been a nurse for 14 years and my initial position was in the PICU at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. My career afforded me the opportunity to work at a number of other institutions - I was a nurse coordinator / heart transplant coordinator for pediatric cardiothoracic team at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and then the nurse coordinator for the cardiothoracic team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. During my time at CCHMC I decided to obtain my dual Master's in Business Administration and Nursing Leadership with an emphasis in Health care. Upon graduating I accepted a position as the Nurse Manager for the Cardiac OR team and then bridged into safety / quality as I became the Program Manager for Surgical Services. This job encouraged me to really explore the importance of safety / quality for all aspects of pediatric surgery and I led the accreditation of our center as a Level 1 Pediatric Surgical Verification Program.
Eventually, I decided it was time to return home to Iowa and took a position as a staff nurse in the Children's Operating room as I started my Doctoral program for Health Systems Administration at the University of Iowa. I graduated this past spring and I was offered the opportunity to take over the role of nurse manager. This project was part of my DNP work to really address our retention / resignation situation and we continue to employ many of the same methods that we learned throughout the process.