Dr. Phyllis O’Neill has been a nurse for over 30 years and has served as a sexual assault nurse since 2010. She started my career as a nurse on Post Open Heart and Transplant Unit and later moved to the Emergency Department (ED). While in the ED, she was exposed to all types of patients and the ones that pulled on my heart strings were the voices of the patients that were never heard. While, she has moved around in my career from staff nurse to manager to director positions and has never lost my love for the ED or caring for these patients. She was privileged when asked if she would join a group of nurses (yes both men and women) to become a SANE nurse. Back in 2010 in Trenton NJ she took that leap of faith and completed my didactics for both adult and pediatric sexual assault nurse and has never looked back.

Fast forward to today, Dr. O’Neill is currently working full time as a Clinical Outcome Risk Manager (CORM)for the Wellstar system in Augusta Ga. Where she reviews incident reports and collaborates with leadership to develop process improvement within the organization. She also successfully addresses and resolved patient and family complaints and grievance, advocating for improvements that enhance the overall healthcare experience.

Dr. O’Neill also serves as Adjunct Faculty at USC-Aiken where she teaches clinical fundamentals to first level nursing students. Her vast experience and knowledge of nursing serves as conduit for future nurses.

Dr. O’Neill continues to serve the Augusta Ga area in her SANE role at the Sexual Assault Response Center (SARC). Here she takes call monthly to provide SANE coverage for the area, performing exams, documenting finding, collecting evidence and working with the local authority and hospitals ensuring that all patient care needs are met.