CLEVELAND — All month long we’ve been introducing you to some incredible women right here in Northeast Ohio for Women’s History Month.
Today, we’re meeting a powerhouse from the Cleveland Clinic who has been going above and beyond to ensure the next generation of nurses feel seen and prepared.
Meet Stephanie McCarroll-King, a nurse practitioner with a passion for providing excellent care.
“Being a mentor is something you just don’t turn on and off, it’s just a part of being a leader, to continue to bring people forward," McCarroll-King says.
Back in 2004, she joined the Cleveland Clinic as a nursing assistant. Now she holds a Master’s of Science in Nursing. She also serves as the clinical coordinator in the Asthma Center.
McCarroll-King says her desire to become a nurse started at an early stage.
“Nursing just became this wind tunnel and just consumed who I was and just kind of became this open thing of ‘I need to be here, so I would say it was more of a calling for me," she says.
She credits several physician leaders and nurses with helping to push her forward in her career. Now she's doing her part by mentoring nursing students of color at Cuyahoga Community College.
Clinical nurse Monica Labadia says, she doesn’t know where she’d be without Stephanie pouring into her.
“I went from having 10 years of critical care nursing experience, which was all I knew, and then she introduced me to clinical research and that’s where I am now, which I love," Labadia says.
Just last year, McCarroll-King and her colleagues received a Caregiver Award for providing exceptional care.
You can find McCarroll-King volunteering her time with various mentorship programs and leading her very own program at Tri-C. Her mission is simple: She wants to make sure that the next generation of nurses can walk in their purpose with guidance so that they can provide the best care to their patients.
“For me, if I can help someone to understand that it may be a problem here but let me show you how to go around this," McCarroll-King says. "Let me help guide you through this.”
Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in an unrelated medical story on March 13, 2023.