Long Branch, NJ, June 7, 2022 – Margaret Nielsen, Regional Director of Risk Management for Monmouth Medical Center and Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, was honored recently at Seton Hall University’s 49th Annual Margaret C. Haley Awards celebrating outstanding School of Nursing alumni.
Margaret, who received the 2022 Nelson Aquino Humanitarian Award, was among four School of Nursing alumni recognized for their service, leadership and dedication to the nursing profession and Seton Hall University (SHU). She notes that she graduated from the College of Nursing knowing she had received a superior nursing education.
“I have been fortunate to do much in my nursing career,” she said. “The SHU College of Nursing prepared me for a diverse assortment of eclectic nursing roles and an exciting and challenging career and nourished a tiny ‘seedling’ of probing youthful curiosity and a genuine desire to be a good nurse.”
In addition to earning her nursing degree at SHU, Margaret also earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Seton Hall Law School. She credits both degrees as serving her well and providing “a strong professional blastoff that continues to power my career.”
“I can recall my SHU nursing professors emphasizing that a good nurse should never be afraid to ask questions,” she said. “Not surprisingly, I heard a nearly identical maxim from my Seton Hall Law School professors. So, I asked a lot of questions and learned much along the way.”
Margaret began her nursing career as a new-grad floor nurse at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center (now NY Presbyterian), where she says she learned hospital basics and the importance of compassion, empathy and a reassuring smile. Then as an ER nurse in New York City, she learned to think on her feet and the importance of detailed initial assessments. She later worked as a corporate health care head nurse at Merrill Lynch’s World Headquarters, focusing on patient physical and mental wellness and preventive medicine.
In 2002, she joined the RWJBarnabas Health Care System as the Director of Patient Satisfaction and Risk Management at Clara Maass Medical Center, where she says she learned to look at challenges through the eyes of the patient and patient’s family. In 206, she joined Monmouth Medical Center as Director of Risk Management, a role she now also holds for the hospital’s Southern Campus.
“As Risk Manager, we continually focus on improving patient safety in all areas of the patient’s hospital experience,” Margaret says. “Through all of my roles, I learned top-notch nursing care is truly a ‘Team Effort,’ and my team over the past 20 years has been RWJ Barnabas Health, an organization whose top-notch reputation attracts some of the best and brightest in health care delivery in the nation. I am blessed to work under the RWJ Barnabas umbrella with a genuine all-star team of tremendously talented co-workers.”