In nursing school, selecting a specialty was a matter of equity for Marta E. Morales, BSN. She perceived providing trauma care as elite in the nursing field based on the idea that trauma does not discriminate between people and diseases. As it turned out, her first job opportunity more than a decade ago happened to be in an intensive care unit, launching her continually upward career growth track. Today, the registered nurse is the trauma program manager at Ryder Trauma Center at the Jackson South Medical Center in Miami, Florida, where she is responsible for ensuring that high-quality care is provided and meets state standards.
Ms. Morales loves being a trauma care nurse, she says, because it impacts people at a pivotal point in their lives. Taking pride in her work and choosing to see the good in people, she considers earning her first registered nurse license as her greatest career achievement because it opened all doors to her future. She attributes her success to the guidance she received as a child and an adult from her parents and grandparents and was determined to make them proud by becoming a nurse. Ms. Morales is the most grateful for being there to care for all of them as they faced serious health issues.
Along with her current position in Miami, Ms. Morales is a registered nurse in the bio-hazard containment unit of the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Other roles she held in the Jackson Health System in Miami were as a corporate critical care and trauma educator for learning and development and as a charge nurse in the trauma/burn intensive care unit. Previously at the University of Maryland Medical Center, she served as a registered nurse in the critical care resuscitation unit, the trauma resuscitation unit, and the multi-trauma intensive care unit in the Shock Trauma Center.
Ms. Morales holds a Bachelor of Science in nursing and an Associate of Science in nursing, both from Miami Dade College, and is certified in a variety of lifesaving disciplines. She is also a member of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the Society of Trauma Nurses, the Florida Committee on Trauma and the Association of Florida Trauma Coordinators. Celebrated by her industry throughout her career, she has received the prestigious DAISY Award for outstanding work in trauma care from the University of Maryland Medical Center and The Daily Foundation, and the Trauma Intensive Care Unit Best Nurse-Physical Relationship Award, TICU Nurse of the Year, and TICU Rookie of the Year.
In the next five to 10 years,Ms. Morales plans to continue to advance her career and improve the trauma program at Ryder Trauma Center at the Jackson South Medical Center. The mother of three children says that being a trauma nurse has taught her how life can change in a split second. She, therefore, is also committed to spending more time with her family and others she cares about and pursuing her favorite hobby, sewing.