Marie Yabut, MN, RN, CEN, NPD-BC, strongly believes in paying it forward, and that includes supporting other nurses with the tools and education she has found valuable in her own career. Last spring, the Washington state resident paid it forward all the way to Guam, teaching ENA’s Trauma Nursing Core Course in one of the island’s three hospitals.
“It was an amazing group,” Yabut said. “I think I grew another set of family there.” She plans to return to Guam to provide ENPC instruction in early 2026.
Yabut was born and raised in the Philippines, where she began her emergency nursing career in 1996.
Several years ago, she attended a breakfast celebrating TNCC and Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course providers at ENA’s annual conference. She noticed during the presentation the Philippines wasn’t among the countries where these courses have been taught.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to make sure that the nurses over there will be equipped,’” she said. Although the effort to bring the courses to her birthplace continues, ENA invited her to teach TNCC at the Guam Memorial Hospital under a federal grant, and she jumped at the chance.
Yabut grew up in what she described as a “humble, low socioeconomic” family that valued hard work and education. Her high school’s salutatorian, she applied to a college intending to study engineering but was wait-listed. She changed course and applied to two nursing schools, was wait-listed for one and accepted to another.
While a student at Makati Medical Center School of Nursing, Yabut realized she loved both nursing and volunteering. When the Mt. Pinatubo volcano erupted in 1992, Yabut joined volunteer relief efforts, and in 1998 she participated in a medical mission to the Philippine province of Zambales, helping with outreach programs, immunizations and providing wound care.
After graduation, she took a job in the emergency department, though it wasn’t her first choice.
“During my clinicals, the ER was so chaotic,” she recalled. In fact, she almost accidentally delivered medication to the wrong patient in the busy department. After that close call, she wanted to work in a calmer, more controlled critical care unit, but all the jobs available after she graduated were in the ED.
“I learned to accept the fact that this was the chosen path for me. There's always a reason for things that don’t go how we chose them,” Yabut said. “It was meant to be.” She embraced the role, continued to learn, and grew to love the specialty.
In 1999, she moved with her husband to California and worked as a staff RN at two emergency departments before relocating to Washington in 2007. Since then, she has worked at Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, holding a variety of positions including her current role as a clinical education specialist.
After her move to Washington, Yabut became more active in ENA. She attended her first annual conference in 2010 and served on the Conference Education Planning Committee from 2020 to 2022. She is currently a member of the Resolutions Committee.
Yabut also continues to volunteer through her hospital’s community outreach, and she was named 2023 Nurse of the Year for Professional Development by March of Dimes Washington.
As a high school graduate, Yabut didn’t attend her first choice of colleges, pursue her first choice in majors, or take her first choice in nursing assignments. Yet she believes each of those second choices were the right ones.
“Yeah. I found a better spot,” she said. And while Yabut works to provide the support her team needs and continues to connect with nurses through ENA, she is quick to acknowledge that she relies on her own family network.
“My support system: I can’t do any of this without my husband’s support, my mom and my two girls,” she said.