Nurse educators inspire, teach, and mentor the next generation of nurses, leading the way to the future of nursing. Without them, healthcare workers would be ill-equipped to face the ever-changing demands of today's dynamic healthcare systems. The nurse educator role looks a bit different in a hospital setting. Rather, than focusing on just nursing staff they support the education and professional growth of many within an organization.

St John's Regional and Camarillo Hospitals are fortunate to call Lee Abramo one of their nurse educators.  Lee has been a nurse for over 40 years. Her clinical background is in Emergency Nursing (including a night per diem position at Camarillo ED), yet her specialty is Nursing Education. She has held roles in clinical education, Manager of Education, DSD, Director of Education and Regional faculty for AHA. In her "free time" Lee has taught at Cal State Dominguez Hills and even had an online business promoting cultural and age specific competency validation.. Lee currently shares her expertise and support to our Nurse Residency program teaching and mentoring the new graduate nurses with basic rhythm interpretation, she shares her expertise by teaching 12 lead EKG to expert clinicians. She was instrumental in our PTAP Accreditation for the Nurse Residency Program and designed the template for competency validation; recognized by TJC as Best Practice.

I have seen Lee change the course of many individuals' professional careers and their lives by teaching a new skill to an employee in an entry-level position. L (now an Echo tech who frequents SJRMC) is one such example. L was working at a local hospital in the cafeteria and enrolled in the EKG course.  L excelled at the coursework and became a monitor tech in the telemetry department.  This new skill/position came with an increase in salary and a renewed sense of purpose/inquiry.  This was just a stepping stone in her career; she went on to receive her echo tech certification and uses those skills to assist in the cardiac program at SJRMC & SJHC.

Our Values:
Compassion - Lee carefully listens and empathizes with learners and provides comfort to those in need of healing and support.
Inclusion - Lee's expertise with cultural and age related competency education reaches back to the 1990s. Lee demonstrates this sense of inclusion on a daily basis.
Integrity - Lee inspires trust, excellence and demonstrates courage in her leadership roles and interactions within the education department and hospital staff/leadership .
Excellence - Lee created competency validation tools considered Best Practice by TJC Collaboration - Lee collaborates and creates educational material for nursing and other disciplines within the organization.