The nurse sobbing alone
Holding dying children in the dark, with no one checking on her. The absence in that room — no debrief, no check-in, no acknowledgment that something had happened to a person — is the absence this work is designed to fill.
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Insights
The human experience behind healthcare decisions.
Writing from the bedside and the boardroom. Essays, stories, published articles, and the conversations that made it onto the record.
The Nurses Station
Writing from the bedside and the boardroom.
Where the conversations that matter to nurses, healthcare leaders, and the people who care about them get written down. Honest essays on burnout, culture, leadership, and what it actually takes to make healthcare a place people stay.
What the Train Ride Home Was Trying to Tell Me
A veteran nurse's honest account of severe burnout — the unsafe ratios, the missing leadership support, and the dangerous coping mechanisms and emotional numbness that followed. The essay reframes burnout as a systemic failure rather than personal weakness, and asks healthcare leaders to fix staffing and resources instead of reaching for surface-level wellness fixes.
Read on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Pulse · Apr 2026
The Just Culture Algorithm Isn't the Point. Consistency Is.
Why Just Culture fails when leaders apply it inconsistently — and what real cultural change in healthcare actually requires.
LinkedIn Pulse · May 2026
Overcoming Nurse Burnout: What We Keep Getting Wrong and What Actually Helps
Why nurse burnout is a systemic organizational problem — not an individual weakness — and what sustainable change actually requires from leadership.
LinkedIn Pulse · Featured article
When Being “Too Sensitive” Became Her Superpower
The article that started a conversation — how the trait others used against her became the very thing that makes the work powerful.
New essays land here as they publish. Follow along on LinkedIn for the latest.
Stories
The moments that made this work necessary.
Not case studies. The actual moments — the ones that explain why a nurse ends up building an advisory practice instead of walking away from healthcare entirely.
“I've been the nurse sobbing alone, holding dead children in my arms in the dark, waiting for transport to the morgue, with no one checking on me. I've been the manager taking blows physically and mentally so that my staff can have a break. And I've been the executive in rooms where decisions were made about patients by people who had never worked as a healthcare worker.”
The manager taking the blows
Physical and mental, so staff could get a break. Leadership in healthcare is often described in competencies. In practice it is frequently a person absorbing something so that someone else does not have to.
The executive room
Sitting in meetings where decisions about patients were made by people who had never worked a shift. Nobody in that room was careless. They simply did not know what they did not know. That is a solvable problem.
Media & podcasts
On the record.
Conversations on healthcare technology, artificial intelligence, nursing, and patient safety. Select a card to load and play — nothing loads from YouTube until you ask it to.
More podcast appearances are added here as they air.
Publications
Published work.
Peer-facing writing on trauma-informed workplaces, secondary trauma, and the culture of behavioral health.
Behavioral Health News · Winter 2026
Building Sanctuary: Creating Trauma-Informed Workplaces to Heal Burnout and Secondary Trauma in Behavioral Health
Published in the Winter 2026 issue — a deep dive into what it actually takes to build workplaces where healthcare professionals can heal.
LinkedIn Pulse · Featured
When Being “Too Sensitive” Became Her Superpower
How the trait others used against her became the very thing that makes her work so powerful.
Influential Women · 2026
Featured member, quote feature, and feature article
Recognized as a leader changing the conversation around nurse wellness, advocacy, and the value of speaking up.
More articles and features are added here as they are published.
Testimonials
Stories from the shoreline.
From digital health executives, podcast hosts, nurse leaders, counselors, and the clinicians who have been in the room with her.
Susie doesn't just understand the human side of healthcare; she has lived every dimension of it. Our conversation on The Signal Room was one of the most grounded and honest discussions I have had about what it actually takes to build trust before you can build anything else. Every leader responsible for technology transformation in healthcare needs her voice in the room.
An extremely well-spoken, intelligent person who has an incredible story and background. Susie's insight and perspective add unique value when working on digital health projects with nurses in mind.
You all need to know who Susie Branagan is… she is educated, committed and most of all caring. All qualities you want in a consultant (in my opinion). The stories she tells and the information she provides is not only from the evidence, courses and education she has received — a lot is from lived experience. Something that has given her an edge over the competition. I have been so fortunate to get to know her and collaborate. She has taught me a ton!
Susie's passion for nursing, patient safety, and advocacy is unmatched. I've seen firsthand how she fights for what's right, even when it's not easy.
Working with Susan Branagan at CHA was a truly impactful experience in my development as a counselor. Susie leads with a rare combination of clinical experience, emotional intelligence, and genuine compassion that creates a safe, supportive environment for staff and patients. Her commitment to trauma-informed care is not just theoretical — she actively models it in her leadership every day. What stood out most was her dedication to creating a workplace culture rooted in understanding, teamwork, and psychological safety. Under her leadership, I felt supported as a professional and as a person. Any organization working with Susie will benefit from her depth of knowledge, her integrity, and her unwavering commitment to improving patient care and staff wellbeing.
I had a great free interview with an amazing nurse and Coach Susie Branagan BSN, RN. We had a great session — Susie is a great figure in coaching and helping nurses enjoy mental well-being while caring for their patients.
Worked with Susie Branagan Consulting? She would love to hear about it. Email your testimonial to Susie@susiebranaganconsulting.com and it may be featured here.
Take it further
If something here landed — or hit a nerve.
Susie reads and answers every message personally. Tell her what resonated, or what you are trying to solve.