NCAP Spotlight: Mary Tran, Level IV

Mary Tran, RNC-OB, EFM-C, Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, says the Nursing Career Advancement Program (NCAP) pushes her to further her education and step beyond bedside nursing.

A Labor and Delivery nurse at the hospital for 16 years, Tran says she’s been at Level IV for many years and enjoys maintaining that level.

NCAP recognizes and financially rewards direct care nurses for their dedication to their hospital, profession and education. Nurses advance through levels in the program with a variety of professional development activities.

Tran was inspired to become a nurse at 19 when she visited her grandmother in an intensive care unit.

“I witnessed how compassionate the nurses were to my grandmother, and she didn’t even speak any English,” Tran said. “They were very good with my family and very culturally sensitive.”

As a Level IV nurse, Tran has served as relief charge nurse and a preceptor for new nurses; worked with Texas Christian University Capstone students; and was in charge of annual competency drills. Last year, she was co-author of an article in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing as part of her NCAP work. The article was about lower extremity nerve injury in childbirth.

“NCAP pushes me to further my education, to do things to venture out of bedside nursing and do some research,” she said. “It gives me ideas to change up and do different things to help the hospital, the unit, the community — there’s so much more that you can do.”

By Judy Wiley  • Posted March 25, 2021