A lifelong learner, Carnes recognized for his nursing leadership and care

By Chuck Gordon

Even while he was still in nursing school, Anthony Carnes '15 knew that his professional career would involve leading others. He told Kristen Barbee, who ran Wingate's nursing program at the time, "I want to be a manager one day."

"I think it was just seeing that people had already impacted me," Carnes says, "so how can I impact somebody else?"

Carnes became a nurse manager with Atrium Union at the ripe old age of 27, and now, six years later, he is being lauded for his ability to manage the nurses in the hospital's cardiac unit, progressive telemetry department, and outpatient infusion center.

Late last month, Carnes was honored as one of the NC Great 100 Nurses, and two days later he was named Atrium Union's Nurse Leader of the Year.

Nursing is in Carnes's blood. It might have felt inevitable in 2011 when Carnes enrolled at Wingate that he would pursue nursing, since both of his parents are nurses, but he decided to forge his own path. He opted for pre-pharmacy as his major, but after his first chemistry course, he realized that pharmacy might not be the right fit.

"I changed over to pre-nursing at that point," he says. "I mean, I made a B-plus in chemistry, but it just didn't feel right."

Anthony Carnes with his parents, Geraldine and Billy.

That move has been to the benefit of patients at Atrium Union. Carnes's mother, Geraldine, recently retired after 41 years at Atrium Union, and his father, Billy, still works there training and developing nurses (and was an NC Great 100 Nurses recipient in 2024). Carnes says he learned the science part of nursing - "anatomy and the workings of the human body" - from his dad and the more people-oriented skills from his mother.

Even though much of his day now is spent on the administrative side of healthcare, he still provides bedside care.

"My mom's the one who, still to this day, says, 'Never get above a bedpan,'" Carnes says. "I'm not going to ask my staff to do something that I'm not willing to do myself. And I don't want to lose those skills. Her impact has made me a more gracious leader with my team."

Carnes likes to bounce ideas off the nurses under his charge and credits his team for much of his success. He hired most of them, since the department was 87 percent vacant when he took over. Although he had little experience in hiring at the time, he learned quickly how to spot a quality team member, and the people skills he got from his mother have helped in that regard.

"The finance stuff - it's great," Carnes says. "It's not why I became a leader. I prefer the people aspect, helping the nurses succeed. I know if I can get them successful in taking care of that patient, then the patient is getting what they need and will be better off. My family's here. They're going to come to this hospital, so I need to make sure that whoever's going to take care of them or take care of me later on has been successfully trained."

A couple of days before the NC Great 100 Nurses banquet, Carnes found himself in Palm Springs, Calif., talking to industry leaders about Atrium Union's use of AI in patient care. The hospital was test-driving a technology that automatically records nurse-patient interactions so nurses can drastically reduce the amount of time they spend filling out charts after their shift.

Learning new tech is right up Carnes's alley. He never stops learning, he says, and he's got the diplomas to prove it: In 2019 he earned a master's in nursing, and 10 months ago he received his doctorate in nursing practice.

Going to school full time while working in a demanding profession isn't for everyone.

"I like a challenge," Carnes says. "I don't think we ever stop learning. Just because I have a terminal degree, there's still somewhere else to go. Even when I wasn't in school, I was still trying to get more certifications. Evidence proves that the more you educate yourself, the better the success rates for your patients. Doing that is helping out both me and the people I'm serving."

Carnes says that Wingate prepared him well to both work at the bedside and lead a team of nurses. Being from Pageland, S.C., he had been on Wingate's campus several times growing up, and not only did he not apply to any other schools, but he also didn't think he even needed to tour campus before applying.

"My mom said, 'No, we're going to go tour,'" he says. "We did the tour and I was like, 'This is still it.' I knew this is what I wanted."

Carnes wound up playing in the pep band and wind ensemble, being part of the honors program, and, of course, enrolling in the fledgling nursing program.

"At that time they were still building it," he says, "but when I met with them, I could see that they were dedicated to making sure, 'We're not doing this just to get a student through. We're doing this to make sure that they're successful. We're building a program to bring the best nurses forward.'"

Now he's been rewarded for being among those best nurses.

"I think, at least for where I started and where I am in my time of life now, this is what I was called to do," Carnes says. "Twenty years down the road, I may have a midlife crisis and I might go back to school to be a baker. I don't know. But I think at the moment I'm where I'm supposed to be doing what I'm supposed to do."

Learn more about Wingate's nursing program.

Oct. 23, 2026