Connect

This is the latest installment in our Connect article series “Hope at Work” — showcasing inspiring stories about how our team members contribute to UVA Health’s 10-year strategic plan: “One Future Together Health and Hope for All.” No matter where you work, you have an opportunity to inspire hope in others. These stories show how:

Bridging a Critical Gap

UVA Health Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Sarah Curry, NNP-BC, MSN, RNC-NIC, NR-Paramedic, has dedicated her career to improving the care of vulnerable newborns. She recognized a critical gap in neonatal resuscitation training, and aimed to fill it.

Curry — along with Alix Paget-Brown, MD, UVA Health neonatologist and UVA School of Medicine Associate Professor, and Dusty Lynn, RN, MSc, EMT-P, TCRN, UVA Health Life Support Learning Center Emergency Services Instructor — developed the Newborn Resuscitation Course (NRC).

Overcoming Challenging Environments

This innovative program prepares emergency medical services (EMS) professionals and midwives to manage neonatal emergencies in prehospital settings with limited resources through evidence-based training on newborn resuscitation and obstetric emergencies in challenging environments.

“Education on pediatrics, let alone neonates, is very limited for EMS providers,” Sarah explains. “We have to remember: kids are not little adults, and neonates are not just little kids. Physiology, diagnoses, and treatments can vary greatly. Forming the NRC from recognizing this gap in education and the need for a course that not only provided the knowledge for helping the neonatal population, but guidance on how to provide high quality and safe care in limited resource environments.”

Spreading the Word

In November 2024, Sarah took to the stage at the Texas EMS Conference — a premier platform for EMS providers across the country. She also served as a guest speaker at the Frontline Cruise Conference, where she co-facilitated the NRC program and presented on “Wilderness Obstetrics: Tips and Tricks for Welcoming George in the Jungle” — an engaging talk that focused on delivering babies in remote and resource-limited environments.

“NRC is designed for both EMS and midwifery. Often, there can be friction between these two groups when EMS is called to a home birth or birthing center,” Sarah describes. “NRC promotes each profession’s capabilities and strengths and encourages collaboration and training between EMS and midwives on how to work together in the best interest of both Mom and baby.”

Asking ‘Why?’

“I’ve always had a fascination with medicine for as long as I can remember,” says Sarah, who grew up in Warrenton, Virginia, and recalls helping her dad care for babies in their church nursery every Sunday. “And one of my favorite TV shows growing up was Rescue 911!” 

Sarah started taking healthcare-related classes in high school, where she served as a student athletic trainer and earned her emergency medical technician (EMT) certification. She credits her high school athletic trainer, Coach Steve Downs, with being probably the most influential person in her decision to pursue a healthcare career, and sparking her passion for education. “He taught sports medicine classes and had a way of breaking down the information and making learning fun,” she recalls. “He would always push his students to keep learning — and always ask: “Why?”

Answering a Calling

Sarah joined James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia — at first, to study athletic training — but then, she says, quickly felt nursing would offer more variety and work-life balance.

Sarah started working as a nurse at a Harrisonburg hospital emergency department — given her love for EMS — but then answered a “calling” to neonatal medicine and joined the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at a hospital in Northern Virginia. “This is such a unique population,” she says of the youngest among us. “I love being able to watch babies grow and heal and go home to their families.” 

After about eight years, during an EMS conference — a chance meeting with Dr. Paget-Brown, who also serves as Neonatal Emergency Transport System (NETS) Medical Director and Medical Transport Network Associate Medical Director — led Sarah in 2013 to her role as a clinician on the NETS team, combining her dedication to paramedicine and neonatal nursing. 

Breaking Ground

Sarah then graduated with her master’s in nursing from UVA School of Nursing — proudly part of the first graduating class of the school’s Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Program — then in August 2020, transitioned into working in the UVA Health Children’s NICU during the pandemic.

“Through her work, Sarah exemplifies commitment to quality care and educational innovation in neonatal practice,” hails another Sarah — Sarah Lepore, MSN, NNP-BC, Advanced Practice Manager, UVA Health Children’s NICU. “She empowers healthcare providers to deliver lifesaving care to newborns wherever needed.”

One UVA Health

What does Sarah Curry enjoy the most about working at UVA Health? Other advanced practice providers (APP) in the NICU. “These are some of the most amazing people who come from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences and we work really well together,” Sarah describes. “I listen to my other friends talk about the drama they have in their workplaces and that is just something we don’t have here. We talk to each other, share with each other, do activities outside of work together. We never believe in letting anyone ‘drown’ in their work!”

She adds, “We truly embody what a team is and they make coming to work enjoyable and fun, but also are ready to lend an ear or helping hand when necessary — whether for work or personal reasons. Even our travel APPs comment about how special our group is, and many have renewed their contracts simply because of the culture of our group. That says a lot I think!”

IN HER SPARE TIME … 

Sarah has been married to her husband Ben for eight years; they have a seven year old son, Nate (above), and a few years ago, adopted cats Goose and Luke (below).

How does Sarah take a break? “I really enjoy traveling and hiking — whether it’s with friends or family. I also enjoy a good binge on Netflix and admittedly will watch ‘Bluey’ even when my son is not around!” (Me, too, Sarah!)