For Nurses, By Nurses: Leading Innovation at the Bedside and Beyond

Cheristi Cognetta-Rieke is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and serves as a vice chair of nursing at Mayo Clinic, leading practice transformation work for the enterprise Department of Nursing. She is the creator of MyStory©, a tool to capture each hospitalized patient’s story to personalize their care.  In her current role, Cheristi and the enterprise practice transformation team are leveraging generative AI to build transformative tools for nurses, by nurses™, such as a new Nurse Virtual Assistant tool, ambient nursing documentation tool, a curated digital platform for Mayo Clinic nurses and more. 

Karizma Maxson is a devoted wife, mother of five and an accomplished nurse leader with extensive experience in neonatal intensive care and nursing leadership. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice and brings advanced clinical expertise and strategic vision to her role as a nursing manager. Karizma is committed to fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration and compassionate care. She is passionate about mentoring teams, driving quality improvement initiatives and ensuring patient-centered outcomes. Her dedication to innovation and professional development empowers nurses to deliver the highest standards of care.

Brendon Bloomfield is a psychiatric nurse on an acute inpatient unit at Mayo Clinic in Rochester on the St. Marys Campus. He also serves as a Behavioral Emergency Response Team (BERT) nurse and co-chairs the Nursing Practice Subcommittee for Psychiatry and Psychology. Brendon has led several innovation and quality-improvement initiatives, including the rollout of RAPID (Rapidly Accelerating Problems & Ideas) and the development of digital tools that improve documentation accuracy and behavioral safety. He is actively developing a next-generation behavioral safety system that uses advanced analytics to detect early signs of escalation. Brendon contributed to early-access testing of the Nurse Virtual Assistant, an AI-generated patient summary tool that supports clinical decision-making. Brendon also helped implement a virtual reality wellness program to promote staff resilience in high-acuity psychiatric settings. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Nursing Practice with a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner focus at Winona State University, where he is committed to advancing technology integration, leadership, and access to mental health care.