Karla received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing with honors, with a minor in Psychology from Purdue University. Karla's employment experience includes Mayo (Clinic) Health System, University of North Carolina Hospitals, and St. Joseph Hospital (Indiana). She has worked throughout many units in the hospital, but specializes in trauma, burn, critical care, and pediatrics. She has cared for burn patients for over 11 years at 3 different regional burn centers. Karla joined the University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center staff in 1993. Karla has worked as both a bedside nurse and Clinical Care Coordinator in the Trauma Burn Center. As the Clinical Care Coordinator she was responsible for advancing nursing clinical practice through staff education and integration of research. She developed policies and protocols to improve care and efficiency. She also coordinated nurse and tech orientation, education, and competency testing. Karla has multiple specialty certifications in CCRN (Critical Care Registered Nurse), ABLS (Advanced Burn Life Support), ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support), ATCN (Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses) and is a national instructor of ABLS and BCLS. As Nurse Educator, Karla is responsible for managing the burn center's family focused injury prevention programs which focus on high-risk behavior such as alcohol and drugs, child fire setting and fire play. The Prevention Programs include:
As nurse educator, Karla is an advocate and speaker within the community, lecturing to first responders and community groups on fire and home safety and health issues. Her focus is understanding injury statistics in order to educate the community thereby reducing the occurrence of tragic burn and trauma injuries. |
