Amy K. McCarthy DNP, RNC-MNN, NE-BC, CENP

Hello Texas Nurses!

I am excited to welcome you to my website. I hope that you have the chance to learn a little bit about me and why I am so passionate about advancing the profession and advocating for all nurses!

I currently serve as the Director of Nursing of Women’s, Infants & Oncology at Texas Health Hurst-Euless-Bedford. In this role, I help to lead our Women’s Services Program (L&D, OB ED, Mother Baby, NICU, OBGYN & Lactation) as well as our Oncology unit. I recently graduated from The George Washington University with my DNP, focusing on executive leadership. My DNP project was in partnership with the Nurses on Boards Coalition and was focused on empowering nurses to seek board leadership through utilization of mentorship programs. The program involved nurses from across the US and showed the influence mentorship and sponsorship can have in increasing a nurse’s self-efficacy and motivating them to pursue these positions.

I truly believe in the importance of using transformational, heart-led leadership to inspire and motivate nurses to build cultures of innovation within their workspace. Over the past eleven years, I have had the opportunity to work collaboratively with state and national leaders on strategies to accomplish nursing initiatives, which continuously inspires and invigorates my efforts to improve outcomes for the public and employees I serve at the bedside and in leadership. In addition to nursing, I also have over seven years of marketing experience, with an emphasis in public relations and advertising. I continue to work as a communications consultant with local organizations, assisting with the creation of advertising materials, event photography and copy writing for various publications within the organizations.

I most recently served as Director-at-Large on the American Nurses Association Board of Directors. Through this role, I worked to represent my nursing constituents across the United States and collaborated with the board on issues such as workplace violence, staffing and racism in nursing. I also worked with the Enterprise Boards to assist in the creation of the 2023 ANA Strategic Plan and served as Chair on the Committee on Appointments.

In addition to my role as TNA President, I also currently serve as Past-President of The Dallas Fort Worth Great 100 Nurses, an organization that is committed to recognizing and celebrating the art and science of nursing within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Every year, we invite individuals from across the metroplex to nominate a nurse that has made a difference in their lives - over 700 nominations come in every year and 100 nurses are selected for that year’s class of Great 100 Nurses. These individuals are recognized at an annual gala that highlights the impact that nurses make in our communities every day.

Prior to my work on the ANA Board, I served as Secretary of the Texas Nurses Association and still serve as Secretary of the Texas Nurses Foundation. I was also recently given the opportunity to co-lead the Texas Action Coalition and assist in the work done across the state to in line with the Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity report. I previously served as Co-Chair of the Communications Work Group for the Nurses on Board Coalition, assisting with aligning coalition’s marketing resources to fit graphic standards and collaborating on national campaigns. I have worked with the National League of Nursing, serving on the advisory board of the Accelerating to Practice program, assisting in the creation of a new curriculum and residency program that focuses on a new graduate’s entry into the workforce. I also had the opportunity to serve as webmaster for Texas Team, a nursing action coalition dedicated to advancing the health of Texans through the nursing profession. In 2017, I was one of twenty selected from across the nation to participate in the National League of Nursing’s  executive leadership program, LEAD.

In addition to my DNP, I hold a Bachelors of Arts degree in Biology from Southern Methodist University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing  and a Masters of Science in Nursing Administration from the University of Texas in Arlington. I also hold a Nurse Executive certification as well as a certification in Maternal - Newborn Nursing.

My most important roles in life are being a wife to my husband, Nick, and a mother to my six-year-old son (Mikey!) and eleven-year-old puppy (Jakey!). You will frequently find me traveling and going on adventures with this crew! I am grateful to a whole team of family, friends and mentors who have supported me, inspired me and been my biggest cheerleaders on this remarkable journey called nursing.