The Valley Hospital is now open at 4 Valley Health Plaza in Paramus. (You may need to use 650 Winters Avenue for GPS.) All emergency care is now being provided at this location. Emergency care is no longer available at our Ridgewood campus.
Marie Shanahan MA, BSN, RN, HN-BC, is Founder and President of The BirchTree Center for Healthcare Transformation. She is board certified in holistic nursing and has consulted to healthcare organizations since 1998, helping them to develop caring cultures and healthy environments, with a strong focus on nurse self-care, vitality, resilience and the patient/nurse relationship.
Marie's experience includes clinical, administrative and educational roles. She was co-principal investigator for a two-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation research study establishing the link between holistic nursing and improved nurse retention and patient satisfaction in an acute care hospital. She has served as the Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) and was awarded the 2016 Holistic Nurse of the Year.
Together with her teaching partner, Veda Andrus, EdD, MSN, RN, HN-BC, Marie has trained more than 10,000 nurses in holistic nursing and is responsible for more than 60% of the board-certified holistic-trained nurses in the country. Their Integrative Healing Arts Program curriculum was acquired by the AHNA in 2018 as the organization’s national and international course preparation for holistic nursing practice.
Marie's graduate thesis focused on Self-Care Knowledge and Agency of Staff Nurses and Perception of Therapeutic Presence. She has presented at the American Holistic Nurses Association, American Organization for Nurse Executives, American Hospital Association Health Forum on Integrative Care, and the National Database of Nurse Quality Indicators conferences, among others.
Recently, Marie co-presented Mapping an Innovative Future: Pioneering the Healing Organization at the national Magnet conference (Atlanta) and the Sigma research conference (Dublin) detailing the impact of nurse-led healing environments on nurse excellence, hospital culture, patient/clinical outcomes and HCAHPS. She is the author of several articles on holistic healthcare and integrative therapies. She is also the co-author of several book chapters with Dr. Andrus, including Holistic Leadership in the Core Curriculum for Holistic Nursing.
Marie resides in western Massachusetts, where she refuels with yoga, art, music, and family time.