Jaden Dennis, RN, is an emergency room nurse and former NCAA Division I track-and-field athlete, who knows exactly what it feels like to place something precious in someone else’s hands and trust they’ll run with it. After starting college on an athletic scholarship in Brooklyn, Jaden spent the pandemic taking stock. He had been studying economics, a path chosen more for convenience than calling, when a single mentor changed everything. His coach, Dr. Lena Washington, a physical therapist, All-American athlete, and the architect of a relay team that had qualified for Nationals, served as Jaden’s possibility model for what it meant to live a good life. In September 2020, Jaden became a Certified Nursing Assistant. By 2022, he had earned his nursing degree.
I believe nurses are extra ordinary human beings. We are educators. We are the backbone of medicine. We are the foundational pieces to the hospital.
Now in the ER, Jaden helps to build the synergy that makes high-stakes teamwork possible by lending a hand or an ear and building trust in the quiet moments. Those small handoffs, he explains, are baton passes: each one a vote of trust, each one proof that when the critical moment comes, nobody runs alone. Listen as Jaden reflects on what sports taught him about nursing, why the best teams are built in the margins, and what it really means to be a nurse who shows up, not just for patients, but for the person running next to you.
Resources:
- Jaden Dennis on LinkedIn
- The role of teamwork and communication in the ER (PubMed)
- ANA National Nurses Month (Nursingworld.org)
