Abrazo Scottsdale Campus ER nurse Tom Bretz, RN, CEN, was recently recognized for 25 years as a Certified Emergency Nurse. Bretz received the recognition from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN).
Emergency nurse certification from BCEN requires passing a rigorous test on emergency care and completing annual continuing education. Bretz, a Peoria resident, has worked as a nurse for 42 years, joining Abrazo five years ago.
“Tom exemplifies the meaning of Emergency Room nurse through providing quality care and compassion for every patient,” says Sarah Bird, RN, BSN, director of the Emergency Department at Abrazo Scottsdale Campus. “We are really appreciative of everything he does for our patients, as we are of all our nurses and staff.”
In receiving his 25-year pin and certificate, BCEN recognized Bretz’s commitment and dedication to emergency nursing, and acknowledged the many years of service dedicated to furthering his knowledge for expert patient care.
The coronavirus pandemic has been rough, he acknowledges, not only at work but affecting home and daily activities from shopping to not going out.
“We are trained to identify a problem and to fix it as best we can, yet it seems we can only band aid this for now. More happily we are slowly beginning to get a handle on treatments, and hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel; within the next year this can all be in the rearview mirror,” he says.
Still, he gets satisfaction from helping turn around any situation from an emergency, perceived or real.
“If that is teaching someone about their illness, putting on a dressing, starting an IV, helping a stroke or a heart patient, or giving a child a popsicle, when you can change the situation into a more normal situation and see that in a patient, that’s the satisfaction of a job well done.”
“I enjoy what I do. There’s a lot of variety and I get to help a lot of people with things like traumatic injury or stroke; every day is different,” he says.
