Amber Dicken
Amber Dicken, RN (She/Her) is an accomplished healthcare professional with over 12 years of experience in the medical field and nursing expertise since 2019. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Bellarmine University, where she was recognized on the Dean’s List and inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, Lambda Psi Chapter. Throughout her career, Amber has demonstrated a deep commitment to providing compassionate, patient-centered care while advancing her clinical skills and expertise in critical care, trauma medicine, and patient education.
Amber began her nursing career in trauma medicine, working in the Trauma ICU, a role she describes as one of the most rewarding experiences of her career. She later expanded her practice to COVID ICU care and briefly served as a charge nurse, managing high-pressure situations and complex patient needs. To broaden her clinical exposure and adaptability, Amber also completed travel nursing assignments, gaining experience in diverse healthcare settings and navigating unpredictable, high-stakes environments with confidence and precision.
Amber currently serves as a Registered Nurse at RNnetwork and works with Accredo, a specialty pharmacy, where she conducts telehealth appointments and provides comprehensive patient education on adverse events and infusion techniques for patients with chronic illnesses receiving home infusions. Her patients include individuals managing life-changing conditions such as HIV, AIDS, and autoimmune disorders, and she guides them through every step of the treatment process—from initial diagnosis to ongoing therapy management. Amber leverages her critical care background, clinical knowledge, and strong communication skills to empower patients, ensuring they understand their care and can safely manage complex treatments at home. She views nursing not just as a profession, but as an honor and a privilege, embracing the responsibility of guiding patients through critical moments with empathy, expertise, and unwavering dedication.
• Registered Nurse
• Bellarmine University - BSN
• DAISY Award
• International Honor Society of Nursing Sigma Alpha Lambda Induction
• ANA
• Sigma Alpha Lambda International Honor Society
• Hope for Holidays - Christmas gift program for homeless population
What do you attribute your success to?
I've been a nurse since 2019, but I've been in the medical field for about 12 years. Currently, I work for a specialty pharmacy, Accredo, where I do telehealth appointments and patient education on adverse events and how to do infusions for patients with chronic illnesses who do home infusions. I do enjoy that. I've always liked that education component of nursing, so it was kind of a good fit. I started my career in trauma medicine. I worked trauma ICU, which I absolutely adored. Still to this day, probably one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. Then, just because of the world at the time, every ICU became a COVID ICU. So I did COVID ICU and trauma ICU, and I was charge nurse for a little bit, and the medical industry just got really, really crazy. It was unsafe for licensure and staffing and things like that. So I started to do travel assignments just so I could kind of break up that monotony of always having to deal with crazy situations constantly and being in charge of it. I traveled for about two years, and I was ready to just kind of be home. I missed my home. I was homesick, definitely. So I came back, and I helped open a surgery center here locally, and then that's kind of where I stumbled upon my current job. My main areas of expertise are still critical care and crisis management, but mainly I just do a lot of patient education now. A lot of my patient population has HIV, AIDS, and autoimmune disorders. Some patients have been just newly diagnosed, so I walk them through from the first to the very last step. Within my first year as a nurse, I actually won a DAISY Award, and I was inducted into the International Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Alpha Lambda. I've been nominated for two other DAISY Awards since. Those are definitely two of my most proud achievements as a nurse. I really do see nursing as an honor and a privilege. These strangers walk into the hospital on probably the worst day of their life, and they have no option but to lay all of their trust at our feet. I find that to be an honor, that you get to be a part of their life for that critical moment. Even if they don't remember your name, they'll always remember how you helped them through it. I've always loved my field and have always wanted to help people. It's a very rewarding career to me.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to always be open, always listen, and always soak up everything that you can. That applies to any profession and honestly to life too, because some things you might learn at bedside can be applicable to life. Life is always changing, and every industry professionally is always changing, so just be open and be ready to soak up everything you can. Ask questions, just be a sponge, and have that discernment level. Another piece of advice that's been passed down to me is to be confident. I know as a female in the medical field, that is sometimes very difficult, or just as a female in general, but I have worked really, really hard to gain my foundation of knowledge. So whenever I have a suggestion or a criticism, I need to be confident about it. I can back up my claims. If you have something to say, say it.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I really do see nursing as an honor and a privilege. These strangers walk into the hospital on probably the worst day of their life, and they have no option but to lay all of their trust at our feet. I find that to be an honor, that you get to be a part of their life for that critical moment. Even if they don't remember your name, they'll always remember how you helped them through it. As a good nurse, you've got to address not just the physical, but the mental - do they have their family there, do they have family that they want space with. There are so many different moving parts and components that you have to address all of them at some point. I've always been kind of a nerd. I've always liked seeing how things work and how things are put together, and I've always had a passion for helping people. I'm a big empath, sometimes to a fault. I did want to do something or have a career that made a difference, that at least in some small part made this world a little bit better than the way I found it. In my personal life, I'm a dog mom to two rescue pitties, so I love spoiling them in my free time. Really, truly anything outside - kayaking, hiking is a huge one, swimming, biking, anything like that. I like being physical, and any chance that I can get to be outside, I love to do that. I also do Hope for Holidays every year around Christmas time, which I actually started. We get basic hygiene or comfort items and wrap them in Christmas gifts for people on the streets. I lost my brother in 2020 to a drug overdose, and he was homeless for periods of time, so I wanted to give back to that community, to kind of pay it forward. I'm sure that there was somebody at some point in time that helped him out, so that's just my way of paying it forward to somebody that probably paid it forward into my life somehow.