CRICO Shines a Light on Patient Safety Heroes: Nurses

As an ode to Nurse’s Month 2025, we at CRICO took the opportunity to interview three of our own nurses, Julie Higden, Annette Roberts, and Dorothy Flood, about their career experiences in and outside of a clinical setting.

Together, their collective decades of nursing experience have contributed substantially to CRICO and Candello’s patient safety efforts.

Although every nursing career is unique, these three women share many commonalities, from being inspired by fellow nurses in their own lives to caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I chose nursing, well, I think nursing chose me, to be honest,” Julie Higden, Senior Patient Safety Program Director at CRICO, shared. Higden vividly remembers sitting down with loved ones with the intention of being an English teacher and leaving to apply to nursing school.

Similarly, Dorothy Flood, Patient Safety Nursing Manager at Candello, realized nursing was meant for her at 16-years-old, when she was in and out of the hospital visiting her ill grandmother. Flood, who had originally wanted to become a doctor, was so moved by the care her grandmother received from the nurses, she decided to pursue the career path herself.

“I was inspired by one nurse in particular and realized that nursing really encompasses so many different fields, from looking at the science of medicine to social work to teaching. And I knew then, after my interactions with so many wonderful people, that I would love to be a nurse,” Flood said.

Annette Roberts, Patient Safety Program Director at CRICO, chose nursing as her career path due to her early exposure to the health care field.

“What inspired me to go into nursing is really my family. I was encouraged by my parents, but also, I had an aunt who was a nurse. I would love listening to her stories about her career and things that she was doing within the hospital,” Roberts explained.

Higden and Roberts reflected on one of the most challenging times of their careers: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roberts grappled with feelings of inadequacy during the height of the pandemic and not being able to work in a clinical setting. Compelled to offer support, she volunteered to administer COVID vaccines.

“I had decided I would volunteer to administer COVID vaccines when they became available. And one of the days that I was there, one weekend day, a woman came up to me and said, I waited in line to get to see you because you gave me my first vaccine and I wanted to see you again,” said Roberts.

For Higden, she was a relatively new nurse director during the pandemic’s peak. A proud moment she shared involved leading a team of 100+ nurses during this time.

“We continued to show up and care for cancer patients, many of whom also had COVID, and it was a time that I think everybody was anxious and fearful, and we really didn’t know what we were going to walk into everyday or what to expect,” Higden said. 

Flood closes with the feelings that bring her back to work every day.  “What I have valued the most is the phone call, is the letter, that I have received from a patient of family that I have helped...I realized that was my dream, to make sure that I was somebody who listened, who could be empathetic, and could guide people in their darkest hours.”

Over the course of Nurse’s Week (May 6–12, 2025), we shared testimonies from Higden, Roberts, and Flood across our social media channels. Connect with CRICO and Candello on social media to never miss a post!

• CRICO LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crico 
• CRICO Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRICOcommunity
• Candello LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crico-strategies
• Candello Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MeetCandello