UCHealth Parkview's Brittney Surniak named Colorado Trauma Nurse of the Year

Key Facts

• Brittney Surniak was named Colorado Trauma Nurse of the Year by Colorado Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council (EMSAC) after receiving Southern Colorado Trauma Nurse of the Year recognition.
• She has spent nearly 20 years working in emergency and trauma care at UCHealth Parkview Medical Center.
• As trauma program manager, she oversees trauma services, quality improvement efforts, regulatory compliance and clinical guidelines.
• Surniak helped establish UCHealth Parkview's whole-blood program.

Pueblo, Colo. (Nov. 9, 2026) Brittney Surniak, trauma program manager at UCHealth Parkview Medical Center, has been named Colorado Trauma Nurse of the Year by the Colorado Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council (EMSAC). The statewide recognition honors her dedication to patient care, advocacy and innovation that have helped improve outcomes for critically injured patients at UCHealth Parkview.

She initially earned Southern Colorado Trauma Nurse of the Year honors from the Southern Colorado Regional Emergency Medical and Trauma Services Advisory Council (RETAC)

A Colorado State University Pueblo graduate, Surniak began working in the emergency department while attending school. She started as a unit secretary and has spent nearly 20 years caring for patients and advancing trauma services at Parkview. Her career has focused almost exclusively on emergency and trauma care; specialties she says have always been her passion.

Surniak currently oversees trauma services throughout the hospital. She reviews every trauma patient's care, helps ensure compliance with state regulations, develops clinical practice guidelines and policies, and works with physicians, nurses and clinical teams to continuously improve care for injured patients.

Among Surniak's most notable accomplishments is helping establish UCHealth Parkview's whole-blood program. She worked with Curtis Andrews, an American Medical Response (AMR) paramedic and clinical education specialist and received support from hospital leadership and the UCHealth Parkview Foundation.

The program allows ambulance clinicians to administer whole blood to patients in the field experiencing severe blood loss, providing rapid access to a potentially lifesaving intervention. Since its launch, the program has expanded beyond trauma patients to include select medical emergencies, helping save lives when minutes matter most. Program leaders say the initiative has an estimated 85% survival rate and contributed to numerous successful patient recoveries.

While honored by the award, Surniak is quick to credit the people who helped make her success possible, including her husband, Sean, a firefighter-paramedic, who encouraged her to apply for the trauma program manager role.

Looking ahead, Surniak said she is excited about continued growth within trauma services, including efforts that could make the program the first in Colorado to achieve a specialized accreditation recognizing excellence in prehospital blood administration.