Heather Bartlett, BSN, RN, CEN, CNML, is a nurse educator and supervisor in the Emergency Department at MyMichigan Medical Center Midland in Midland, Michigan. She is the person responsible for orienting every nurse, ED tech, and unit assistant who joins their team, equipping each one with the confidence, competence, and humanity to show up for patients on their worst days. Her mission is deeply personal. When Heather was 15, her father died of a massive heart attack at age 42. In the immediate aftermath, an emergency department nurse was her rock and her ally. That nurse’s compassionate, honest, and unshakeable presence planted the seed for everything that followed.
Nurses are healers. Nurses are advocates. Nurses are listeners. Nurses are strong, powerful, innovative, creative. Nurses are so many things to so many people.
Heather reflects on what it means to truly see your patients: to hear what they’re saying, to notice what they aren’t, and to stand with them in the hard spaces as their bridge, their advocate, and their confidant.
Resources:
