As someone who has been working in emergency care roles since he was a 15-year-old junior firefighter and paramedic, Adam Brown, BSN, EMT-P, RN, TCRN, understands both his capacity for helping others and his capacity to tolerate the stress that comes with it.
Brown’s youth pastor encouraged him to join his community explorer programs, and soon Brown was doing ride-alongs in ambulances and taking paramedic classes. In the rural North Carolina area where he lives, most EMTs are also firefighters, but Brown said he felt claustrophobic in the firefighter gear and pivoted to working as a paramedic in a trauma center.
Several years later, he completed his nursing degree, which was around the time assaulting a health care worker became a felony in North Carolina, a law for which many of his colleagues had advocated, he said.
“One of my nurses was assaulted by a patient, and she was one of the first ones to press felony charges,” Brown said. “The ENA members in my department stood by her, were her support system through that process, and they went to the courthouse to stand by her when they trial came.
“Seeing that camaraderie and that ability to effect change in our practice environment, I wanted to be a part of that,” Brown said.
He joined ENA as a student nurse and attended his first ENA annual conference in 2017, returning the next year as a General Assembly delegate. He grew increasingly active in his local Piedmont ENA Chapter and served as its president in 2023.
Brown works across six EDs in the Cone Health System, and he acknowledges a career in emergency response can take a toll.
He took a sabbatical for a year during his time as a paramedic. In early 2024, “a switch just flipped,” he said, and he knew it was time again to focus on his own physical and mental health with better diet and exercise. By fall he had achieved two goals: the 110-story 911 Memorial Stair Climb and the Emergency Nurses Week 5K.
“I’ve definitely had my periods of questioning my resolve to continue to do this job,” Brown said, and he’s learned a valuable lesson. “It’s all about the perspective and the work-life balance. I tell all the nurses not to go out there and work all the overtime just because you can. You’ve got to take time for yourself. It’s OK to say no. Prioritize your own self-care.”
Brown is currently pursuing his master’s degree in a family nurse practitioner program, with support from an ENA Foundation Judith Kelleher scholarship. He intends to apply what he learns in the ED.
“I see so many people from vulnerable populations who use the ED as their only source of care,” he said.
The additional education will help better prepare him to educate patients on non-emergency needs, such as tending to high blood pressure, while they establish themselves with primary care.
Brown also jumps in to help outside the ED. He has deployed to Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico as part of the NC-1 DMAT, the region’s national disaster medical assistance team. After the city of Boone, about an hour from him, saw heavy damage from Hurricane Helene, he cleaned out homes as a volunteer with a religious nonprofit.
“I enjoy being there for people in their darkest times,” Brown said, whether it’s in an ED or the mess a natural disaster left behind. “And then I see the gratefulness in their faces. It’s just the ability to brighten their day.”