United Hospital

Corewell Health Celebrates Certified Nurses Day

Nurses share the benefits of special credentials.

GREENVILLE, Mich., March 16, 2023 – In observance of Certified Nurses Day March 19, three nurses at Corewell Health’s Spectrum Health United Hospital shared the significance of gaining additional knowledge through extra certification.

Over 40 registered nurses at Greenville and Kelsey hospitals have achieved a nursing certification, demonstrating additional professionalism and excellence. Certified Nurses Day is March 19, the birthday of nurse credentialing expert and advocate, Margarette Madden.

“As a nurse, obtaining a professional certification demonstrates that you are committed to going above and beyond by taking this initiative and becoming an expert in your field,” said Kristen Van Stensel, director of nursing at both hospitals. “This is an amazing way to role model to other nurses how important it is to continually learn and grow in your own practice.”

Amy Colby, RN, is a 1997 Greenville High School graduate who achieved her medical-surgical certification in 2018.

“Getting that certification increased my confidence in being able to share expert information with newer nurses and fellow team members,” Colby said.

Colby took business classes at Montcalm Community College, Hope College and Grand Rapids Community College and was a manager at Ponderosa in Greenville for five years.

She, like her husband, Justin, joined the Army National Guard in 2004. They both were deployed to Iraq.

Because of her military experience and after her uncle was diagnosed with a brain tumor, she was inspired to go back to school to become a nurse.

She received her associate degree in nursing from Montcalm Community College in 2015 and her bachelor of nursing degree from Western Governors University in 2022.

Colby started her nursing career at Butterworth Hospital in the inpatient department and joined Greenville Hospital in 2017, working mostly in the intensive care unit. She’s currently a hospital supervisor, a role she’s had since April of 2020.

Lauren Vangroningen, RN, is a Central Pennsylvania native who moved to Michigan to attend Calvin University, where she studied social work and psychology. She graduated in 2007 and worked as a social worker for about nine years before following her lifelong dream to become a nurse, going back to school and getting her nursing degree from Grand Rapids Community College in 2016.

Vangroningen’s mother and both of her grandmothers were nurses, and her father and both grandfathers were doctors, so becoming a caregiver was a family tradition, she said.

After working in hospice, long-term care, and at the Meijer Heart Center, she joined Greenville Hospital in 2020 as a labor and delivery nurse.

“I’ve always loved women’s health, so my dream job was labor and delivery,” she said.

She earned her advanced obstetrics certification in 2022 and will complete her master’s degree in nursing administration from Ferris State University in April.

“That certification helps guide us as nurses in how to intervene if there is concern with a patient or the baby,” Vangroningen said. “It gives you an extra boost of information and reminds us of what tools we have in our toolbelt when you’re on the floor with patients.”

Karlie Ring, RN, graduated from Ionia High School in 2010 and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Detroit Mercy at Aquinas College in 2014.

She earned her advanced medical surgical certification about six years ago.

“As a nurse, having that certification gives you a little more self-confidence,” Ring said. “It’s just more recognition that you have the experience and you have taken the time to demonstrate that you’re competent in your field.”

She worked as a float nurse technician at Greenville Hospital while going to college and joined the hospital full time in the inpatient and intensive care units after graduation.

Ring, who lives in nearby Orleans, is currently back working in the float pool, orienting in the emergency department and then she’ll gain experience in the obstetrics department.

To commemorate Certified Nurses Day, each advanced certification nurse at Greenville and Kelsey Hospitals will receive a small gift and will be recognized in displays at receptions at each hospital.

 

About Corewell Health™

People are at the heart of everything we do, and the inspiration for our legacy of outstanding outcomes, innovation, strong community partnerships, philanthropy and transparency. Corewell Health is a not-for-profit health system that provides health care and coverage with an exceptional team of 60,000+ dedicated people—including more than 11,500 physicians and advanced practice providers and more than 15,000 nurses providing care and services in 22 hospitals, 300+ outpatient locations and several post-acute facilities—and Priority Health, a provider-sponsored health plan serving more than 1.2 million members. Through experience and collaboration, we are reimagining a better, more equitable model of health and wellness. For more information, visit corewellhealth.org.

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