The second annual AL DÍA 40 Under Forty event will serve to highlight and showcase some of the most diverse and impactful young professionals across the Philadelphia region.

At the event, taking place on August 27, 2021, Samantha Heffron will be one of the 40 honorees. She is a nursing manager at Temple University Hospital.

Heffron is a registered nurse in the Temple University Health System, where she is a nursing manager at Temple University Hospital. 

She’s been at Temple for over nine years, and has risen to management from starting as a patient care assistant in 2011, even before she became a registered nurse in the system.

Before Temple, Heffron was at Abington Memorial Hospital in the Jefferson Health System and a home health care aid for BAYADA Home Health Care.

She is a graduate of Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a Bachelors in Nursing and a Masters in Nursing Administration.

Here are Samantha Heffron's responses:

When moving into a management role I had to make the decision to step away from the bedside doing direct patient care which was a difficult decision for me because I love taking care of patients.

As a nurse leader, providing education and celebrating cultural awareness of all cultures is a step I can take with my staff. This is important to do so because working in healthcare, we have a growing responsibility to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion not just for the employee but also to better serve the patients and their families.

Being a nurse leader means influencing others to improve the quality of care for patients. I believe a leader can be anyone not just a formal leadership title such as manager or director.  You can be a leader as a staff nurse when empowering others to improve in their practice.

In five years, I see myself growing more as a leader and taking on more responsibility to help other nurse managers grow in their leadership roles.