Betty Long, RN, MHA, is the President/CEO and Founder of Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates and a nationally recognized expert and speaker on patient advocacy. As a registered nurse since 1986, she has experience in clinical, management and consulting capacities. In addition, she has a long history of healthcare advocacy with special expertise in critical care, long-term care and geriatric care management. She is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Case Management Society of America as well as the Forum of Executive Women in Philadelphia. In 2022, she will serve as President of the Board of Trustees for The Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania.

Nurse Czarkowski, who joined Guardian Nurses in 2015, is responsible for training, developing and coaching all of our RNs. She is also taking on the role of Director of West Coast Operations effective July 2021. Nursing is a second career for Rebecca. Since graduating 13 years ago from nursing school, she has worked as an emergency room nurse in several hospitals before taking a role as a case manager and team lead, managing 19 care managers in a specialty oncology hospital.

Nurse Sambuco is responsible for our Clinical Operations. She joined Guardian Nurses’ team in 2013 with more than 15 years of clinical and management experience in pediatrics. She has worked with patients of all ages, though, and feels strongly that everyone needs an advocate–regardless of their age or situation! In August, 2015, she was named as a finalist for the 2015 Pennsylvania Nightingale Awards!

After several years of coaching and advising our nurses who work in our Complex Care MCC Programs, Nurse Rudi has been promoted (December 2021) to Manager of Data Metrics and Quality. In that role, she will be responsible for both our internal and external reporting. Clinically, she has extensive experience working with diverse clinical situations including cardiac, endocrinology, and orthopedics.

Nurse Duckworth is part of our Seattle team and is a native Washingtonian. Her clinical experience includes hospital nursing–on med-surg, telemetry and labor & delivery units, as well as in long-term care at a skilled nursing facility. Tessie is passionate about wellness and enjoys working with patients to make better health decisions.

Nurse Kane leads our Mobile Care Coordinator (MCC) Nurses who work in our Pennsylvania programs. She has more than 33 years in nursing with experience managing a large cardiology physician practice. She has also worked in pediatrics, adult critical care, and nursing management.

Nurse Welden leads the nurses who work on our advocacy cases. She has more than 14 years of clinical experience both in pediatrics and adult care. Her hospital nursing background includes case management, neurology, ER and critical care. She also has home care experience both as a case manager and as a nurse manager.

Nurse Spector leads the nurses who work in our New York and New Jersey Mobile Care Coordinator (MCC) Programs. Having been a nurse for more than 35 years, Andrea has had roles in acute care nursing, school nursing, consulting, home care, and nursing administration.

Nurse Agnese joins our team after an 18-year career in case management, nursing education, and critical care nursing in hospitals both in New York city and in Northern New Jersey.

Nurse Aliano has been a nurse for 14 years and recently (June 2021) completed her BSN degree. She has worked as a staff nurse in oncology as well as in interventional radiology, and also has management experience in running an interventional radiology unit.

Nurse Bassett has enjoyed a 29 year career in nursing as well as a variety of roles in that time, most of them in South Jersey. Med-surg nursing, operating room, clinical trials, nursing management, case management and ambulatory care are just a few of the roles she has held.

Nurse Calderbank brings more than 35 years of nursing experience to her nurse advocate’s role. To her credit, 30 years in, she received her BSN degree in 2017. Her career has spanned many roles in critical care and most recently managing a cardiac catheterization lab.

After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Nurse Donahue found nursing and has never looked back. Now 23 years as a nurse, she has experience in hospital med-surg and post-partum units as well as insurance case management and community health.

Nurse Fitzmaurice began her nursing career in 2002 and has held several clinical roles in acute care. She has served the public in nursing roles spanning from student health to bedside nursing, to research nursing, to long term care.

Nurse Fitzpatrick began her nursing career in 1993 and through the years, has worked in both pediatric and adult nursing as well as several positions in clinical research and clinical trials.

Nurse Fonseca is a ‘second career’ nurse having worked for many years in the newspaper industry in Florida. She began her nursing career in 2005 and went straight to the emergency department where she has worked in various clinical and management roles.

Nurse Gant comes to Guardian Nurses after several years of hospital experience in pediatrics both at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Inspira Health System in South Jersey. She has also worked as a school nurse in South Jersey.

Nurse Hensley joins Guardian Nurses with more than 23 years of healthcare experience in not just acute care hospitals but also in international missionary work in Cambodia and Mexico. Her recent experience has been in critical care units and interventional radiology units.

Nurse Houseman brings 16 years of diverse nursing experience to her role as a Nurse Advocate. Having started in labor and delivery nursing, she went on to roles in home health, care management, clinical research and finally as a Program Coordinator of the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Program.

Nurse Jaroma has more than 16 years in nursing, mostly in the emergency department as a staff nurse and in leadership, but also cared for patients on telemetry and cardiac units. She brings great passion to her support of patients.

Walker joins the GN team after nine years as a nurse both in Florida and Washington state. He brings with him both acute care hospital experience as well as an outpatient dialysis clinic. He most recently managed two dialysis clinics, overseeing a 50-person team, in Northwest Washington.

Crystal began her nursing career in 2001 as a staff nurse on the cardiothoracic surgical step-down unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital: Weill Cornell and spent 10 years there. Since then, she has raised her family and worked a variety of per-diem positions in the NY/NJ area.

Nurse McBride has more than 29 years as a nurse delivering patient care in med-surg and rehab units, as well as roles as a clinical care coordinator and IV/PICC Line specialist. She also has done compliance reviews and managed an out-patient chemotherapy center.

Nurse McCarrick has had many diverse roles in her more than 30 years as a nurse. She has worked as a staff nurse, nurse manager, and case manager in acute care facilities as well as in the community and in home care.

Nurse Meredith has more than 20 years of experience providing care to a wide range of patient populations, including home care. She began her nursing career working with residents of a long term care facility followed by many years as a staff nurse at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, in med-surg and cardiac care units.

Nurse Mitchell happily ‘broke the barrier’ of being our first male nurse on the GN Team. As he admits, “I’ve always been surrounded by female nurses.” Hailing from the Puget Sound area, Stephen has worked in clinical and psychiatric units for more than 10 years both in Washington and California.

Nurse Murphy joins Guardian Nurses with more than 39 years of experience in the Philadelphia area in so many areas of nursing, we don’t have enough room to list it all! Most recently, Maryellen’s work was in hospice and home care. She brings clinical, operations and management experience to our team.

Nurse Spector has more than 17 years of experience in hospital, adult intensive care, adult and pediatric critical care transport, emergency medicine, home health, case management, and outpatient psychiatric care environments.