Ohio Academy of Emergency Nursing Fellows

My FAEN platform and contributions to emergency nursing are rooted in my overall passion to enhance the out-of-hospital (EMS) care system. In addition to national education and advocacy through conference presentations and professional organization involvement I have worked with other national professional organizations (specifically, NAEMSP and AAENP) to co-author position statements guiding the incorporation of advanced practice nurses into EMS systems. The use of APRNs in EMS systems can help evaluate and treat patients in place, deflecting low-acuity patients from unnecessary ED presentation, while integrating APRNs into critical care teams better aligns care capabilities with the increasing acuity and complexity of this patient population. My overall vision is to enable EMS clinicians—whether paramedics, nurses, APRNs, or other disciplines—to practice at the highest level of their licensure and training to maximize their ability to care for diverse patients in this dynamic and inherently resource-challenged setting. 

Outside of my professional career, I enjoy traveling and hiking, and have a goal of visiting all of the U.S. National Parks some day! 

Contributions:  Research.  

Brittany E. Punches, PhD, RN, CEN, FAEN is an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and Department of Emergency Medicine at the Ohio State University.  Dr. Punches’ clinical and scientific training focuses on applying health service research to develop and test emergency care prevention interventions to address population health. Her primary focus surrounds disparities in pain management, substance use, and trauma recovery.  Punches is funded by the National Institutes of Health, is an editor of the Journal of American College of Physicians (JACEP), and was awarded "20 under 40" among emergency nurses in 2022. 

Dr. Kimberly D. Johnson, PhD, RN, CEN, FAEN, is a nationally recognized emergency nursing scholar, educator, and leader with over two decades of clinical, academic, and research experience. Currently serving as Associate Professor and Director of the PhD Program at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing, she has built a career dedicated to advancing the quality and safety of emergency care through rigorous research, innovative teaching, and strategic leadership.

Her research focuses on the impact of interruptions in emergency department triage and care delivery, with multiple funded studies from AHRQ, Sigma Theta Tau, and the National League for Nursing. She has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and presented extensively at national and international conferences. Dr. Johnson’s work has shaped best practices in triage management, simulation-based education, and nursing care for vulnerable populations.

A Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Nursing and the VA National Quality Scholars Program, she has received numerous accolades including the Distinguished Alumni Award from Youngstown State University and the Faculty Excellence Award from the University of Cincinnati. Her leadership extends to service on institutional review boards, faculty senate committees, and professional organizations such as the Emergency Nurses Association, where she has held roles from Ohio ENA president to ENAF research grant review committee chair.

Dr. Johnson combines clinical expertise, academic rigor, and a passion for mentorship, making her a driving force in shaping the future of emergency nursing and healthcare research.

Education platform created trauma and pediatric education programming (ENPC & TNCC) that serves Northwest Ohio and Southeastern Michigan. 

Since being inducted, programming has expanded and pivoted to meet the needs of remote learners with critical access facilities, bringing up rural and suburban ED’s on both TNCC & ENPC that previously did not have access to these programs. 

Attendees also include international learners from our Canadian partners.  

Serve as state faculty and mentor for ENPC/TNCC course instructors and directors throughout the state of Ohio

Being a member of the Academy has opened many opportunities that include national speaking engagements, and serving as a JEN manuscript reviewer 

Gallagher Continues to provide system-based education for not only ED’s but also organization based local EMS transport agency.

Jeannie has 30 years of emergency nursing experience.  She has been actively involved with the ENA at the local, state and national levels.  Jeannie is the clinical nurse specialist at Bethesda North Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio where her focus is on mentoring nurses, both new and experienced.  She strives to ensure that evidence-based practice guides the nursing care that is provided in the emergency department (ED).  Her projects have varied from targeted temperature management to expanding a sexual assault nurse examiner program to include evaluation and resources for victims of domestic violence.

She has developed a new grad orientation program that incorporates didactic learning with human patient simulation ensuring that over 25 new graduate nurses are competent to care for emergency patients.

In addition to her work with the ENA, she is also a member of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists.  She was a member of the standard setting committee for the adult-geriatric clinical nurse specialist exam.  Due to her work with the Nurses Improving Care for Health System Eleders (NICHE) and the integration of the Geriatric Emergency Nursing (GENE) Education course she was asked to present at the national NICHE conference on the impact of the GENE course on geriatric patients in the ED and on the implications of a geriatric friendly ED. 

My pillar was Public Policy. My current interests are in the pilar of leadership with a focus on performance improvement.

Dr. Nicholas Chmielewski is an Associate Director in BRG’s Healthcare Performance Improvement practice. Nick is a results-driven leader with expertise within and outside the ED. His experience in opening a startup hospital combined with his project management experience with an informatics overhaul enables him to bring a unique skill for performance improvement consulting engagements. He excels in data analysis, collaborating with informatics professionals, and hardwiring processes that provide real-time objective feedback to staff regarding their performance. Separately, Nick has also managed successful clinical integration projects following an organization’s acquisition. 

 Prior to his tenure with BRG, Nick was a consulting manager with an international consulting company. One engagement included the implementation and refinement of an ED vertical care process in an 83,000 visit ED. The team was successful in reducing the left without being seen rate from a baseline of 7.5% to 1.1%, and door to provider and overall discharge ED length of stay improved by 49 and 124 minutes respectively. The team also improved the sepsis 3 and 6-hour compliance rate from 26% to 88%. In addition to the quality-of-care improvements, many of the projects Nick has led resulted in net multi-million-dollar benefits.

Nick also has director-level and associate chief nursing officer service-line experience, interim assignments that involved responsibility over multiple departments and/or multiple sites. One of Nick’s former clients summed up the engagement as, “One of the best decisions I made to refocus our emergency services on a better trajectory.” 

 Nick has served on many state and national committees with the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) and multiple committees and task forces with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). National ENA leadership positions include serving as the 2014 Resolutions Committee chairperson, the 2019 Advocacy Advisory Council chairperson, and six years on the Academy of Emergency Nursing (AEN) Board, including its 2022 Board chairperson. He was the primary driving force behind the 2012 passage of Ohio’s Healthcare Workforce Protection Act and continues to influence Ohio public policy. 

 Nick is a published author in the Journal of Emergency Nursing, Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal, ENA Connection, Becker’s Hospital Review, VOICE of Nursing Leadership, Nurse Leader, JACEP Open, and BRG Review. He is a Certified Emergency Nurse and holds multiple national board certifications in nursing leadership. Nick was named an AEN Fellow in 2014.

My significant contributions were in the area of education: introducing TNCC to Greece, ENPC to the Netherlands and Portugal, CATN to the Netherlands, editing and authoring chapters in Sheehy’s Emergency Nursing: Principles and Practice, 6^th ed., writing chapters in ENPC and TNCC revisions, and presenting at international, national, and regional conferences on various emergency care topics.

I am semi-retired after 40+ years of cartside emergency nursing, currently teaching AHA resuscitation classes at the Cleveland Clinic. I would be excited to mentor newer emergency care educators and assist colleagues interested in developing presentations.

Contributions: past ENA Board member (2018-2020), Interim Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Emergency Nursing (2022), and served as guest editor for special issue of JEN focused on workplace violence in the emergency department (May 2023) 

Bio: Dr. Gordon Gillespie has been a registered nurse for nearly 30 years working in emergency department, public health, and academic settings. His research on workplace violence against healthcare workers has been funded by the CDC-National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Nurses Foundation, and Emergency Nurses Association Foundation. He has been invited by the CDC-NIOSH to develop an educational program on workplace bullying and consult on two national online learning modules. His work has been cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Government Accountability Office, American Nurses Association, and practitioners and researchers across five continents. He chaired the national workplace violence conference, guest edited two interprofessional journal issues on workplace violence, co-chaired the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario’s second edition of the Best Practice Guideline “Preventing and Managing Bullying and Violence in the Workplace”, and served as an international Director of the Emergency Nurses Association. Currently he is a Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing in the Department of Population Health.