Saundra (Goucher) Counce, RN graduated high school in Hennessey, Oklahoma. She completed her nursing education at Oklahoma City University and St. Anthony School of Nursing in 1971.

Shortly thereafter, Nurse Counce was selected to work on numerous pilot programs including the world’s first Mobile Intensive Coronary Care Unit (the forerunner of today’s Emergency Medical System - EMS), Oklahoma’s first Coronary Bypass Intensive Thoracic Care Units, and Oklahoma’s first Heart Transplant Unit, lead by the late Doctor Christian Bernard.

Because of her husband’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, Nurse Counce located, applied, and transfered to the Nashville Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) where she was hired as a Registered Nurse in the Step-Down Telemetry Intensive Care Unit in 2001.

Because of limited staffing, heavy workload, and poor management, Nurse Counce’s unit suffered a 128% turnover rate during the first year.  That rate grew to 185% in 2002, which was when she first learned of sham peer review. (more here)  Today, she focuses on learning how to protect targeted physicians and nurses.

Saundra and D.A. Counce are the parents of three adult daughters and one son. They expect their first granddaughter this year.  (press release)