Michele Lee, DNP, RN, CEN, NPD-BC, of Virginia

Michele Lee demonstrates enduring and substantial contributions to the advancement of

emergency nursing within the area of education and a specific focus on transition to practice. She is an emergency nursing educator and program architect whose work has measurably strengthened ED readiness and nurse retention. She designed and led the ED RN Transition to Practice Pathway, which reduced ED turnover from 46 percent to 5.1 percent. She expanded the program across 12 hospitals and five freestanding EDs in multiple states, with more than 700 new graduate nurses completing the pathway to date.

In less than five years, her two publications confirming the correlation between orientation deficits and burnout or intent-to-leave have garnered 94 citations across five continents.  She also created the Mentoring with Purpose program and has personally mentored over 400 new graduate nurses with 91 percent of them reporting increased confidence. Her enduring, scalable models advance competency, resilience and retention in emergency nursing. Lee is a nursing professional development specialist with Sentara Healthcare.