57: Moment of Awareness: Safety First

Our lives can become governed by routines. So much so that little changes—like a detour on the way to work, or an unexpected phone call—can have unimaginable consequences. Maria Striemer, RN, BA, was in the emergency department when she treated a child accidentally left in a car from heat exhaustion. Unable to leave the experience behind, Maria began a journey that was anything but routine. She and her engineer husband worked to develop Backseet Buddy, a sensor that uses a Bluetooth connected app to detect when a phone has moved more than 50 meters from a car seat and sends a phone alert. Along the way, she contended with negative feedback, setbacks, and a global pandemic that put Backseet Buddy on-hold. This inspired an awareness campaign, and an entirely new product that protects the ears of frontline workers forced to wear masks for extended periods of time. In this Moment of Awareness, Maria's experience developing the Backseet Buddy is emblematic of her nursing career: using collaboration to build, often from the bottom up, novel ways to keep people safe. Email us at [email protected]. For additional resources, visit our website at www.seeyounowpodcast.com.