Mercer is helping the nursing shortage one patient at a time

MINOT, N.D. – There is a nationwide nursing shortage in the United States, caused by a combination of reasons.

An aging and retiring workforce, coupled with a population in need of increased care, has been worsened by increased burnout resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic and significant barriers in nursing education.

However, one nurse is helping with the shortage, one patient at a time.

Madelyn “Maddie” Mercer, ’22 is currently a registered nurse in the Emergency/Trauma Center at Duke University in Durham, N.C. Aside from her everyday nursing responsibilities in the trauma center, she has several additional responsibilities.

Mercer serves as a chair on the Duke Trauma Committee, where she works closely with the trauma team, reviewing past cases and presenting new information to the emergency team. Mercer is also a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) and works closely with police on forensic cases.

One of her favorite responsibilities, though, is her role as a pediatric champion in the trauma/emergency department, where she trains incoming nurses about pediatric emergency and trauma care.

In September, Mercer was offered to be a guest speaker at the 2025 Emergency Nursing Association Conference, a national organization for emergency nurses. She was chosen after submitting an abstract to the organization. This year, there were over 500 submissions.

“I feel really lucky to have been given the opportunity to present on this type of platform because I was able to network with other nurses and educators while also presenting my work in a professional setting,” Mercer said.

Mercer chose to present on hypothermia management in the ER, due to previously having a trauma case that stuck with her. After doing research and reading numerous case studies, she was able to pull together an in-depth presentation on all of the interventions that can help a patient who is hypothermic.

The best part of the entire conference, according to Mercer, was that right after her presentation, she was able to speak with multiple nurses who were brimming with questions about hypothermia.

“Most of the nurses were from Canada, Minnesota, and Montana, which made me feel like I was back in North Dakota with all of my fellow Midwestern folk,” she said.

Mercer came to Minot State University by chance, from a casual conversation with her grandmother. While Mercer was a senior in high school in Arizona, she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life and was feeling stressed about the prospect of college. She was sitting at the table with her grandmother, Pat Hennessy, talking about her future.

“(My grandma) told me that she always thought I would end up as a nurse,” Mercer said, “because I can make anyone smile at any time. She and I have always been close to each other.”

Mercer grew up spending summers on the Hennessy farm in Berthold.

“Still to this day, it is my favorite place to visit,” she said. “I will always hold so many memories from those summers.”

She added that her Grandma Pat mentioned how she thought Mercer should think about applying to Minot State University, since other family members had graduated from there. Plus, it would be a good way for Mercer to spend more time with her grandmother. As soon as she heard that part, Mercer said that she immediately applied.

“I knew I loved North Dakota and had so much family support there, and once I was interested in nursing and I saw the school’s statistics, I knew that this would be the place for me where I would gain an education, but in a setting that wants to see me succeed,” she said.

Going to Minot State University was even more of a family affair as Mercer’s younger sister, Maggie, along with a mutual friend, also came to MSU for their education. Mercer’s sister and the friend loved the University so much during a campus visit that they both applied. Maggie earned a scholarship to play softball, and Mercer had fun cheering for her sister while still also resuming their fights over stolen clothes.

Mercer has many fond memories from her time at MSU. Some of her favorite times were watching her sister’s softball games. Mercer and her grandmother, along with aunts and uncles, would attend the games.

“It was really fun to spend time with family,” she added.

Probably Mercer’s most precious memory of all from Minot State, though, was adopting her dog, Oakley.

“He is the best decision I have ever made and my favorite sidekick to do life with,” she said.

While at Minot State, Mercer worked at Trinity Health during the summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience not only helped her career, but she feels grateful for the partnership between MSU Nursing and Trinity Health.

“I think to be able to go through something like that, where you are isolated from everyone and still have to work, made me appreciate everything the medical staff at Trinity gave during that time,” Mercer said. “That time really helped me prepare for my future in the medical field.”

Even with all of her collegiate experience, Mercer still didn’t feel completely prepared.

“I think that no matter what, you are never truly going to be prepared for the medical field right out of graduation,” she said. “However, nursing school gave me the foundation and fundamentals to understand medicine.”

She learned to apply her skills in the field in real time.

“I have come so far in the past four years,” Mercer said. “I would not be the nurse I am today if it weren’t for (MSU professor) Amy Roberts ’01. She pushed me to do a nursing internship in the ER with Trinity Health. It was my first time in a hospital setting where I was able to learn.”

The nursing profession is somewhat notorious for nurses working long, grueling hours, and Mercer can attest to that. Mercer works 12- to 18-hour days and sometimes longer if she is involved in a forensic case.

“I am not going to sugarcoat it,” she said. “Being an emergency nurse is extremely taxing.”

Being a nurse means that you see people on the worst day of their lives, Mercer added.

“You give and give, and most of the time, all the work you do goes unnoticed,” she said. “You see the end of someone’s life and the beginning of someone’s life, and sometimes both in one day.

“My job gives me the ability to provide compassion to someone who has lost everything. I am able to provide care for someone’s mother, brother, sister, father, or best friend.”

Entering the medical field as a young professional can be intimidating, according to Mercer. As an emergency/trauma nurse, there is an incredible amount of autonomy, she said.

“I learned so much in my first year of nursing and continue to learn every day,” Mercer said. “The biggest thing I had to overcome was self-doubt.”

Once she realized that she was well-prepared by school and her training, though, she became more confident and learned to trust her intuition. The Duke University Hospital is a learning hospital, Mercer added, which means there are medical students, residents, and fellows who train alongside the medical staff.

As a nurse in the trauma center, Mercer said she has a great deal of responsibility, and providers rely heavily on the nurses’ recommendations during patient care.

“I do a lot with the emergency residents,” she said. “I help facilitate simulations with them where I get to engage and help them learn how to provide care to a patient in certain medical scenarios.”

Mercer currently resides in Durham, N.C., having packed up and moved one month after graduation. While she moved to the Tar Heel State not knowing anyone, she has since made lifelong friends and met a very supportive boyfriend.

“I could not have acclimated better to life on the East Coast,” she added.

In the next year, Mercer plans to continue her education and continue her roles in the emergency center. She will cross-train in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU) and will split her time between there and the ER/trauma unit. Additionally, Mercer plans to pursue her pediatric critical care flight transport certification within the next year, which will enable her to fly with her pediatric patients.

In life outside of the hospital, Mercer will be moving into her first house in December, which she is extremely excited about. Her boyfriend is scheduled to complete his medical fellowship in 2027. They have no idea where they might like to go after but are just along for the ride. The couple met during his internship year of residency.

“We have both been so fortunate to watch each other grow in our fields,” Mercer said. “Plus, it’s fun to give him a hard time about being slow (with) putting in his (prescription) orders.”

Mercer has worked through three disasters already in her short nursing career. Along with the COVID-19 pandemic while at Trinity Health, she was deployed to the Asheville, N.C., area to help with emergency services during Hurricane Helene in 2024. She spent a week in a hospital room, helping to care for patients who had been evacuated or required emergency care. The third was the Duke University Hospital flood last Christmas. A chilled water pipe burst, resulting in thousands of gallons of water flooding the emergency department.

Through all these events and life lessons, Mercer advised nursing students to surround themselves with friends, family, and activities that fill their proverbial cup.

“If I had to give a new graduate nurse one piece of advice, it would be to prioritize self-care,” she said. “You take care of everyone else, so make sure that you also take care of yourself.”