Inpatient Nurse Manager Enjoys Supporting the Team Providing World-Class Burn, Craniofacial Care

As inpatient nursing manager at Shriners Children’s Ohio, Robert Larsen’s role is focused on caring for the caregivers.

“Basically, I’m here to make sure the nurses have whatever they need to take care of our patients,” Robert, a registered nurse who also has an MBA and BSN, said.

Those needs range from new or annual training and education to scheduling assistance to one-on-one coaching or teaching, and everything in between.

“I love building programs and developing teams that all want the same thing: the best outcome for a patient,” Robert said. “Pediatric nurses are a great group of people, and if I can help them do a little bit better at their job, I feel great.”

Robert’s journey into pediatrics started later in life (he first studied chemical engineering in college), but his connection to nursing dates to childhood.

“My youngest sister had leukemia when she was 6 years old, and although she’s fine now, I remember how the nurses interacted with her and all of our family during one of the scariest times of our lives,” he said.

That inspired Robert and his sister to go into nursing. Both graduated around the same time and were working at the same hospital. He first got into nursing management while working in Texas and immediately fell in love with it.

“I love to bring the team together, especially new nurses,” he said. “I love teaching and really helping them grow into their profession.”

Robert joined Shriners Children’s Ohio in December 2024 after learning more about the mission and the hospital staff's expertise in the treatment of burns, craniofacial conditions and complex skin and wound conditions.

“To watch our surgeons perform these really complex procedures that improve lives is really amazing,” Robert said. “We have nurses here who have decades of experience that’s just at a whole other level.”

But what most resonates with Larsen is the mission of providing quality care regardless of a family’s ability to pay or insurance status.

“It’s important to me to have a job where I have a good feeling about what I do every day,” Robert said. “And working at Shriners Children’s does exactly that.”