Michelle Rozen, PhD, wants Emergency Nursing 2026 attendees to know she is not a motivational speaker.
When she delivers her keynote address at the Opening Session, her talk will certainly be fun and energetic. But attendees will not walk away with a fleeting good feeling that fades a few hours later. Rozen promises they’ll leave with something much more powerful.
Rozen will help Emergency Nursing 2026 attendees develop and commit to practical strategies to better handle change.
“Each and every person is leaving with an action plan,” she said. “We’re actually taking action in the middle of the talk, and we’re not leaving without a plan.”
Rozen is a behavioral scientist and author who specializes in science-backed solutions to help teams and individuals navigate the chaotic change that seems to accelerate every day. She has a master’s degree and doctorate in psychology. She’s also a three-time TEDx speaker who has spoken with multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola and Bank of America.
Despite the impressive résumé, Rozen has obviously never worked in an emergency department. But she finds a connection with ED nurses and her research improving organizations structures.
“We both look for where it hurts,” she said.
After speaking with people working in hospitals, Rozen realized that one of the pain points in EDs is the relentless change. What worked seven years ago works less and less often, and more change is always on the horizon.
That workplace stress can bleed over to an unsatisfied personal life. Couple all that with the normal grind of the ED, and it can be impossible for nurses to maintain work-life balance.
“The modern world has gotten so overloaded and complicated and overwhelming for so many, it’s difficult to conduct a personal life without significant burnout,” Rozen said. “If the entire world is dealing with significant overload, you take emergency nurses and multiply it by 10. If everybody needs a toolkit to manage these complications, emergency nurses need it 10 times more.”
Lightening the Load
That’s where Rozen’s plan comes in. At Emergency Nursing 2026, she will take the audience through the process of committing to a personal change, including a signature pledge moment to do one thing different in the next 30 days. She’s been known to invite people on stage with her to share their plans with the audience.
“We’re celebrating. We’re having fun,” she said. “This is going to impact how you make decisions.”
Michelle Rozen will take the stage at the Emergency Nursing 2026 Opening Session.
All this is why Rozen insists she’s not a motivational speaker. She’s not trying to get rah-rah. She wants to ensure ED nursing teams stay sharp and relevant.
Too often, the stress of the job, the pressure of corporate mergers, the unending change in technology, and so much more overwhelm the daily decision process. Teams feel frustrated — or worse, paralyzed.
Rozen’s research has been focused on what she calls “the 6 percent club,” the tier of people who are able to rise above disruptions that keep other people from reaching their goals. She wants to bring more emergency nurses into that 6 percent group.
“The optimism comes from yes, the world has gotten a lot more complicated, but you will know what to do differently in order to know and feel better,” Rozen said. “My message to them is the real challenges in the world are not the industry or the changes in health organizations. The real challenge is your own brain. How do you take control and channel your brain to do the things that really matter to you?”