Geri Narsete-Prevo, MSN, RN-HROB, CEFM, has made it her life’s work to improve the treatment and outcomes for women who hemorrhage during childbirth. Her commitment and excellence have earned her worldwide recognition as the 2022 Magnet Nurse of the Year in the Transformational Leadership category. She received the award from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) National Magnet Conference in October 2022.
She was chosen from among an elite group of nurses worldwide who were nominated for the award, all of them from organizations that the ANCC has given Magnet designation — the highest honor in nursing.
A graduate from Rush University College of Nursing, Narsete-Prevo is an RN3 in labor and delivery at RUSH University Medical Center, where she has worked for her entire 41-year career. Since 2008, a major part of that work has been her role as chair of the unit’s Post-Partum Hemorrhage Committee, leading the training of the unit’s nurses, and doctors, in the fast-paced, complex care needed to save a hemorrhaging patient.
Narsete-Prevo’s impact has been profound: No deaths from obstetric hemorrhage have occurred on the unit since 2014, and the number of patients who needed to be transferred to one of the medical centers intensive care units after hemorrhaging has decreased dramatically in the past several years.
“Because of Geri’s passion to educate our teams on how to manage blood loss during childbirth, we have made a tremendous impact on patient safety,” says Melissa Browning, DNP, APRN, CCNS, LSSGB, senior director of Professional Nursing Practice and the Magnet Program at the medical center.
Exemplifies RUSH Nursing Excellence
Narsete-Prevo volunteered to chair the committee after the Illinois Department of Public Health required that all hospitals in Illinois providing obstetric care participate in the state’s Obstetric Hemorrhage Education Project, which was created to address the “astounding rate” of maternal hemorrhages.
“Compared to other countries, the United States has one of the highest rates of maternal morbidity and mortality” (complications and deaths), observes Denise Banton, MS, RN, unit director of the medical center’s antepartum, labor and delivery and postpartum units. “A number of causes contribute to this maternal morbidity and mortality, and one of them is hemorrhage, which requires a concerted effort and prompt recognition and treatment.
“It was important that we find a champion for this project,” explains Banton. “Geri has always had a passion and love for our more complicated and high-risk patients, and we thought she would be a great fit for it.” Indeed, Narsete-Prevo welcomed the challenge, which also let her fulfill the expectation that senior nurses at the medical center undertake a project to improve patient care. “The environment we’re in at RUSH empowers us to have a voice and implement projects that have a profound impact on our patients.”
“Geri has made a difference on the patients, and she’s made a difference on the staff, because they have the skills to take care of the patients,” Banton says. Her leadership role overlaps with her clinical responsibilities and draws on her more than four decades of experience providing care in labor and delivery, where 2,600 babies were born in the last year.