Built at the Bedside: Celebrating the Nurses Behind Clinical Consulting
A Nurses Week Special Edition
Aaron Cole, BSN, RN, Consultant
Nurses Week is a time to pause and recognize the people who show up day after day to care for others, often in moments that are intense, unpredictable, and deeply human. At CenTrak, nursing is not just something we support through technology. It is something we carry with us into our consulting work.
Four members of the consulting team come from the bedside as registered nurses: Mary Jagim, Danielle Updegraff, Brenda Hoot Meredith, and Aaron Cole. While not every consultant on our team is a nurse, the perspective these four bring shapes how we think, how we listen, and how we partner with healthcare teams. Their nursing experience shows up in quiet ways, in the questions they ask, the details they notice, and the way they advocate for frontline staff.
For these nurses, Nurses Week is about recognizing how the bedside never really leaves you. Years spent caring for patients shape how they approach clinical consulting today, influencing the workflows they design, the environments they help make safer, and the way technology is introduced as a support to care rather than a disruption.
Mary Jagim MSN, RN, CEN, FAEN – Principal Consultant
Mary Jagim began her career as an emergency department nurse and later served as an ER Director. Those years in the ED shaped how she sees safety, urgency, and responsibility. When Mary talks about staff duress and safety workflows today, she is drawing from lived experience, not theory.
Mary remains deeply involved with the Emergency Nurses Association and has spent much of her career advocating for the safety of emergency staff. She has seen what happens when violence is minimized or ignored, and she has pushed for stronger protections and accountability. That advocacy carries through her work at CenTrak. She designs safety workflows with the understanding that they need to work when someone is scared, distracted, or under pressure.
Mary’s nursing background brings a steady voice to complex conversations. She focuses on reliability, follow-up, and making sure staff feel supported after an incident. For her, technology is only successful if it reinforces trust between frontline staff and their organization.
Danielle Updegraff, MBA, BSN, RN – Senior Consultant
Danielle Updegraff’s background as an OB nurse informs her work in clinical education and hand hygiene consulting. She understands how habits form on busy units and how difficult behavior change can be when teams are already stretched thin.
Danielle brings an approachable, supportive style to her consulting work. Frontline staff often recognize quickly that she understands their world, which makes conversations about compliance and improvement feel collaborative rather than corrective. She focuses on building trust and helping teams see how small changes can lead to meaningful improvements in patient safety.
Her nursing experience allows her to balance data with empathy. She knows that numbers only matter if the people behind them feel heard and supported. That perspective has helped hospitals sustain improvements long after go-live.
Brenda Hoot Meredith, RN - Consultant
Brenda Hoot Meredith comes from labor and delivery nursing, a specialty where attention to detail and constant awareness are second nature. That background is evident in how she approaches infant protection and safety solutions. Brenda thinks in terms of real moments on the unit, not abstract scenarios.
When Brenda works with hospitals, she brings a calm but direct presence that resonates with nursing teams. She understands the weight of responsibility nurses feel when caring for mothers and newborns, and she designs workflows that respect that reality. Her training sessions are grounded in practical questions and honest discussion, helping teams feel prepared rather than overwhelmed.
Brenda’s nursing experience allows her to anticipate where confusion or risk might arise and address it before it becomes a problem. Her work reflects a deep commitment to protecting patients, supporting nurses, and making sure safety systems fit naturally into clinical care.
Aaron Cole BSN, RN – Consultant
Aaron Cole’s path into clinical consulting started at the bedside, working in a dual role as an emergency department nurse and Trauma ICU nurse. Those environments taught him how quickly priorities shift in healthcare and how important it is for systems to work when clinicians are under pressure. He understands the pace, the stakes, and the reality of relying on technology in moments that matter.
After leaving the bedside, Aaron moved into a clinical implementation consultant role supporting oncology research at the same hospital. That experience deepened his understanding of how clinical care, research, and technology intersect, and how much coordination and clarity it takes to support patients and staff across complex workflows.
Today, as a Clinical Consultant at CenTrak, Aaron focuses on asset management, staff duress, workflow optimization, and helping teams make sense of their data. His nursing background shapes how he approaches each project, with an emphasis on practicality, trust, and respect for the people using the technology. He brings the perspective of someone who has depended on these systems during demanding shifts and knows the difference between a solution that looks good on paper and one that truly supports care.
Why Nursing Matters in Consulting
Nursing teaches skills that are hard to quantify but easy to recognize. Situational awareness. Clear communication under pressure. Advocacy for others. The ability to stay present in uncomfortable moments. These are the skills that Mary, Brenda, Danielle, and Aaron bring into every consulting engagement.
Their nursing backgrounds shape how CenTrak partners with healthcare organizations. They help ensure that technology supports clinical care instead of complicating it. They ask different questions, notice different risks, and keep the focus on people as much as systems.
A Note of Appreciation
This Nurses Week, I want to recognize the nurses on our consulting team and thank them for what they bring to CenTrak every day. Their experience at the bedside continues to shape safer workflows, stronger partnerships, and more meaningful outcomes for the healthcare teams we serve.
To Mary, Brenda, Danielle, and Aaron, thank you for carrying nursing into your consulting work. The impact you make reaches far beyond any single project, and it shows in the trust our customers place in us.
Happy Nurses Week!
