As the first and only nurse on USC Student Health’s athletic medicine team, Jennifer is a dynamo, a highly motivated, do-it-all expert focused on the care and wellbeing of student-athletes. Because she entered a department that hadn’t worked with a nurse before, she had to demonstrate the value of nursing — and she has done that many times over.
Jennifer takes care of USC’s student-athletes including medication dispensing, IV administration and platelet-rich plasma procedures. All of it is crucial to the students’ health, and Jennifer is constantly brainstorming new ways to improve those students’ wellbeing and ability to perform. (If you were a parent of a USC athlete, Jennifer would probably be your very favorite person.) She saw that it was tough for these students to find time to get their required vaccinations, so she developed mobile access, providing the vaccines where the students were: in training rooms and at practices. This has improved the vaccination rate each semester.
Like many great nurses, Jennifer has an eye for efficiency. When she realized that student-athletes were getting treatment, but their insurance was not being billed, she developed a process to fix the oversight, which has resulted in significant department savings.
As the first nurse in this setting, Jennifer had to overcome misconceptions about nurses and resistance to change. But four years later, she is an absolutely indispensable leader, elevating the entire department. Her colleagues and students trust her to provide exceptional care—to help these students live their dreams.