Kathleen Posa-Kearney

Clinical Nurse Specialist CardioScience CVICU, Rush University Medical Centre, Chicago, USA

Kathie is a critical care Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Cardiosciences ICU at Rush University Medical Center. In this role she is a key member of the unit and nursing leadership team. Kathie is responsible for advancing clinical practice to achieve strategic goals. Kathie collaborates with nursing and across interdisciplinary teams to implement continuous process improvement to support the nursing strategic plan.

Kathie has been a nurse since 2012, starting her career in a medical/surgical/orthopedic acute care unit at a community hospital outside Chicago. From there, she went to the medical intensive care unit at Loyola University Medical Center. She spent 4.5 years working as a bedside nurse there before going back to school to obtain her master’s in nursing science as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. During the last two years of graduate school, Kathie worked as a bedside nurse in Loyola’s float pool, allowing her to gain experience caring for a variety of critical care patients working in all of Loyola’s seven adult intensive care units.

Upon the completion of school and being a board-certified Clinical Nurse Specialist, Kathie accepted a job in the CVICU at Rush University Medical Center in December 2019. Kathie served as a valued member of the team as Rush faced the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rush developed policies and protocols to initiate early prone positioning for the patient’s diagnosed with COVID ARDS. As a member of the critical care CNS team, Kathie was part of the development and implementation of these protocols.

As part of Kathie’s role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, mentors not only staff nurses but students in the CNS program at Rush University and other Chicagoland universities. Kathie has published a co-authored article about the Clinical Nurse Specialist’s impact during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kathie received her Bachelor’s of Science from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Lewis University in Romeoville, IL and her Master’s of Science in Nursing from Loyola University-Chicago.

Lectures by Kathleen Posa-Kearney

SCCMs ICU Liberation Bundle

a review

Critical Care Nursing / Core Patient Care