Meet SLV Health s Nurse Educators Read about their roles at https://sanluisvalleyhealth.org/news/nurse-educators-making-difference-slv-health/2019-1-14 Dawn Weed, BSN, RN-BC is the Professional Development Specialist at SLV Health. She supervises the nurse educators and is responsible for their schedule as well as certifications for the nursing students. Dawn has been a nurse since 1990 and has been working in the Education Department for the past 5 years. Previous experience includes Labor & Delivery, Post-partum, Newborn Nursery, Level III NICU, Surgery, Endoscopy, PACU, and Nursing Management. She holds national board certification in Nursing Professional Development. Dawn assists in the coordination and teaching of the Nurse Residency Program, the RQI Program, and the SLVH American Heart Association Training Center. She also assists the Nurse Educators in department specific and system wide educational projects. Outside of the work setting, she loves fly fishing with her husband. Rebecca Sours, BSN, RN Conejos County Hospital Unit-Based Educator Rebecca has been a nurse since 2007 and has been working as the Assistant Director of Nursing for CCH for the past five years as well as the nursing informatics specialist for both campuses. She is interested in emergency and critical care and is pursuing her family nurse practitioner degree. She really enjoys teaching and learning new things to take back to her team. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her two girls and two dogs. Kathleen Wolgemuth, BSN, RN Medical-Surgical Unit-Based Educator Kathleen has been a nurse since 2002 and has been working the night shift at SLV Health since 2008. She moved to the SLV from Pennsylvania. She works mostly med-surg, and occasionally in the ICU. She started as the med-surg Unit Based Educator in November of 2017. She loves to read, and she owns a horse.
Brittany Sours, BSN, RN, CEN, CPEN Unit-Based Educator for the Emergency Department Brittany s focus is on emergency medicine and trauma. She teaches a wide variety of certification classes for employees and the community. Currently her projects include learning to build better education through health stream and make everything more accessible online to staff. The other is reaching out to the SHARPS program to help further educate and assist with the high risk population. She works alongside providers and staff in the Emergency Department with the ALTO (alternatives to opioids) program to help educate patients on how to manage pain better without opioids, thus reducing the amount of opioid addiction in the community. She advocates for nurses to obtain board certification in their area of interest. She is incredibly supported by her husband and two children with whom she loves to spend her free time. Daniel Sours, BSN, RN, CCRN, CEN Unit-Based Educator for Intensive Care Unit Daniel has been working in the intensive care environment since 2014. He has worked in multiple intensive care units and is in his element when caring for the critically ill. Daniel teaches certification classes through the hospital and serves as the educator for the ICU at SLV Health, providing education to his specialty unit. He holds national board certifications in intensive care and emergency care nursing. Daniel enjoys spending his free time off with his supportive wife and two school-aged children. Malissa Strand, BSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM Unit-Based Educator for OB - Labor & Delivery Malissa has been a nurse for 19 years. She started as a med/surg nurse as a new grad, and then a pediatric office nurse coordinator. Her family moved to Colorado in 2007, where she took a job in Greeley, Colorado as a mom/baby, pediatric float nurse for six months and then transferred to labor and delivery, which was the job she always dreamed of. She has been working in the labor and delivery department for 12 years now, the last four years at SLVRMC. She is happily married to her best friend for 22 years, and they have three amazing children. Deb Braly, RN, ADN Unit-Based Educator for the Surgery Department Deb has worked for San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center since 2013. She has 22 years of experience in nursing. Her background includes med-surg, ICU, OR circulator and for the past 12 years has been working in the PACU. She enjoys traveling, and she shows horses competitively.
Sara Gonzales, RN Unit-Based Educator for OR/Surgery at SLV RMC Sara started out in her nursing career in the Operating Room at SLV Regional Medical Center. She traveled for a while and moved back to Colorado, learning from some of the best surgeons, nurses, scrub techs and anesthesia providers in the business. She loves nursing and is proud to pass along her knowledge to others as a nurse educator. She is has two wonderful children and a new puppy who keep her busy outside of nursing. Jessica Chavez, CNA Tech Unit-Based Educator, Primarily ICU and Med/Surg Jessica has been a tech since 2009. She obtained her CNA license from Trinidad State Junior College while still in high school. She has worked in a long term care facility with retired veterans for six years when she decided to change to working in acute care, where she now works on the third floor primarily in ICU as the Tech Unit Based Educator. She hopes to help educate techs so they can confidently provide the best care they can to their patients. When Jessica isn t at work she spends all of her free time with her three kids. Nurse Educators in Action at SLV Health