D.D. Finder, BSN, RN, CCRN, CFRN

D.D. Finder has worked in healthcare for over 20 years. His first job was in Peace Corps Guatemala, where he teamed up with a non-profit organization that provided surgical care to improvised farmers from his town. This experience launched his medical career, propelling him to become a director for multiple non-profit organizations by age 26 while working and living full-time in Latin America. His experiences in Latin America range from being kidnapped for an hour to helping an adorable Mayan girl walk again from terrible burns she suffered as a baby. While in Honduras, D.D. had an epiphany; he was making decisions that would affect the health of a community without knowing how to treat an individual. He returned to the United States, first working as an EMT-Basic in the rough, greater Boston areas of Revere and Chelsea, where his passion for emergent and critical care medicine grew. His career goal shifted from public health to becoming a flight nurse, a nine-year endeavor, which started at the University of New Mexico, where he graduated with a B.S.N., followed by working for six years as an I.C.U. and step-down nurse at the University of New Mexico Hospital. D.D. worked for several flight companies in New Mexico and Colorado. By his fifth year in a flight suit, the cumulative stress of his medical career was taking a toll on his health. D.D. left a profession he dedicated twelve years to, returning to a bedside I.C.U. during the height of the delta COVID variant in January 2020. He worked for eight additional months until his mental health continued to degrade. An opportunity to work in an Intervention Radiology department saved D.D. from leaving the profession altogether. D.D. Finder continues to work as a nurse today while writing novels that bring awareness to the immense pressures first responders and nurses endure; their compassion, integrity, and intelligence our nation's best bring to work every day.