June 01, 2011
Pediatric Nurse Jane Virden
Pediatric nurse Jane Virden is returning to a job she left
16 years ago. On June 6, she becomes nurse manager of Hopkins Children’s
pediatric emergency department (ED), where she will help oversee its move this
spring to dramatically larger quarters in the new Charlotte R. Bloomberg
Children’s Center, still under construction.
As nurse manager, she will supervise the clinical and
administrative activities in the pediatric ED at Hopkins Children’s, the State
of Maryland’s designated Level 1 Pediatric Trauma and Burn Center, and the
education and training of its nurses.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity and an exciting time to be
returning to the ED,” says Virden, a nurse educator at Hopkins Children’s since
2005. “I’ve maintained close ties with all the units over the years but have
never lost my fondness for the ED, which has always had a special place in my
heart.”
Viden was nurse manager of both the pediatric ED and the Harriet
Lane Primary Care Clinic from 1990-1995, overseeing approximately 46,000 visits
a year. She stepped aside from the post and its rigors to help maintain a more
balanced life with her husband, Michael, and their four daughters, twin
5-year-olds and 3-year-olds.
She stayed on at Hopkins Children’s, though, as a nursing
coordinator and an instructor in clinical nursing. She led quarterly
training for staff in code and trauma experiences and represented nurse
education for the new clinical campus team. In 2010, she initiated a program for
Air Force nurses that includes training in the pediatric ED and intensive care
unit, in pediatric surgery and recovery, and in trauma and burn care. The
program is part of the Air Force’s Center for Sustainment of Trauma and
Readiness Skills (CSTARS).
Virden first joined Johns Hopkins in 1979 as a clinical nurse
on the infant medical and surgical unit. Over the next ten years, she served as
a staff assistant to the director of pediatric nursing, earned her Master of
Science in Nursing from the University of Maryland and was nurse manager in the
Pediatric Clinical Research Unit before accepting the role of nurse manager of
the pediatric ED and Harriet Lane Clinic in 1990.
“I look forward to working with all the new
people who will be joining us in the ED for the move to a much larger space designed to allow our pediatric trauma patients to come
directly to our ED, rather than via the adult trauma bay, as is now the case in
our 1950s-era building," says Virden. "Our new environment is going to open the doors to
lots of possibilities.”