From the Bedside. To the Boardroom.
When an unexpected career transition created an opening, she used it to redefine the next chapter of her life, not leaving nursing behind, but amplifying it.
Origin Story – The Why Behind The Work
Some careers are chosen.
This one was forged.
Rhonda’s journey into nursing innovation began in an emergency room, understaffed, overwhelmed and witnessing firsthand what happens when the healthcare system fails the people inside it.
“I watched my colleagues work 60-hour weeks, willing to sacrifice everything. I knew what they were doing was wrong. The patients weren’t getting what they needed. I wasn’t getting what I needed. And the system wouldn’t fix itself.”
That moral distress, watching colleagues burn out and patients fall through the cracks of a broken system, became the catalyst for everything that followed.
Alongside her clinical work, Rhonda has always carried a parallel passion for electronic health records, health technology, and leading clinicians to do their best work. Seeing the lack of clinical leadership in business care services, she decided to take a different path.
“I realized that one-on-one patient care was never going to create the type of systemic impact healthcare needed. I wanted to create one idea and give it to 50 people — so they could take it into every corner of the system.”
That insight became her north star. And it’s why she speaks.
Who Rhonda Is Today
The Bridge Between the Bedside and the Boardroom
Rhonda J. Manns is a nurse innovator, educator, and digital health strategist whose career spans emergency nursing, case management, health IT, population health, and product management. She holds an MBA alongside her BSN, RN, and CCM credentials. This combination makes her a rare voice in any room, and a translator between clinical reality and organizational strategy.
She has led large, global teams, driven clinical process improvements, and collaborated with software development and healthcare leadership teams to design digital health solutions for complex patient populations.
Today she serves on national advisory bodies shaping the future of digital health, AI, and nursing innovation, bringing nurses’ voices into rooms where they have historically been absent.
Real Outcomes. Real Impact.
The result: faster treatment, better recovery outcomes, and proof that nurses are systems thinkers.
Increased nursing compliance by 25% in just two weeks — a result that translates directly into lives saved and clinical outcomes improved at scale.
While serving on 2 systemic quality improvement committees, Rhonda oversaw daily operations, staffing, quality reviews, and root cause analyses, building the operational fluency that now informs her work in healthcare innovation and digital health strategy.
From serving on National Digital Health and AI/Data Science Advisory Committees to facilitating global think-tanks and transformational events, Rhonda is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Nursing with influence that reaches far beyond any single stage or organization.
Mission & Message
You Were Never Just a Nurse..
Right now, there are nurses who are burnt out, overlooked, and told — directly or indirectly — to stay in their lane. Nurses who know something is broken but don’t see a path to fixing it. Nurses who have dreams beyond the bedside but don’t believe those dreams are meant for them.
Rhonda was one of them. And she wants you to know: there is another way.
“Whether you want to build technology, lead strategy, launch a company, or transform the system from the inside — your clinical domain knowledge is not a limitation. It is your greatest competitive advantage.“
Rhonda speaks to nurses who want more, and to the organizations, health systems, and technology companies that need nurses at their tables. Her message bridges both worlds: practical, strategic, and deeply rooted in the reality of what it means to care for patients at the frontline of a system under pressure.
Keynote Topics
The Expertise Behind the Voice
MBA — Business Strategy
BSN · RN — Registered Nurse
CCM — Certified Case Manager
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
Scrum / Agile Certified
Health IT & Digital Health
Population Health
Emergency Nursing
Product Management
Human-Centered Design Thinking
Instructor
Consultant & Advisor
Mentor
Book Rhonda for Your Next Event
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