Board of Commissioner Candidate
Nurse Representative
2017-2018 Ballot
Debra Callender holds a Masters’ degree in nursing; education from Walden University, a Bachelor of science in nursing from Chamberlain College of Nursing, an Associate of Applied Science in nursing from Medgar Evers College; City University of New York (MEC-CUNY). Ms. Callender is currently pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice at Walden University.
Ms. Callender has held many clinical practice roles ranging from Clinical Nurse-II, OR Core Manager, Quality and Performance Improvement Managers, and Director of nursing. She is an experience perioperative nurse with expertise in general surgery, surgical trauma, surgical oncology and perioperative nursing education. She held roles in academia as Clinical Lab Technician, Tutor, Clinical Skills Lab, Lecture and Health Science Adjunct Professor. She served as a subject matter expert for clinical skills, medication calculation, and pharmacology while mentoring many nursing students and novice nurses in the NY area.
Ms. Callender is a certified nurse operating room (CNOR), and holds certificates in Executive Nursing leadership, Mastery; surgical service management and Sterile processing department management. She is a member of the association of perioperative registered nurses, (AORN), Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), and the National League for Nursing (NLN). She served on committees at major institutions in NY and NJ as Magnet Champion, Recruitment and Retention (RR) representative for Perioperative Services. She was author of the PeriOp Magnet Monthly News Letter, developed the patient safety pager program to reduce distraction in the OR at MSKCC. Presented and received posters ribbon awards from AORN in 2012, 2013 and 2015 for Clinical Innovation; her work on magnet newsletter was published in 2015.
In the role as Dir. of Nursing, Ms. Callender implemented the AORN PeriOp-101 program in NJ which offered the opportunity for growth and development for nurses in surgical practice. She also developed and presented the education module for onboarding first, and second year medical students, and in-service module for onboarding Medical Residents at UHNJ to improve and maintain best practice. She holds professional nursing licensures in NY, NJ, FL and NC and served as the CCI-CNOR Certification Champion for the NYC area.