Page 10 - IASIS-Success-Story-Ebook-10-16-2017b

KARA CHAVEZ

DNP, EXECUTIVE

LEADERSHIP

Texas CNO Halfway Through DNP Executive Leadership

“Nursing is in my genes,” says Kara Chavez, 29-year nurse of San
Antonio, Texas, whose mother and grandmother were both nurses.
After working as CNA as a teen and an LVN for several years, Kara
returned to school for the ADN in her home state of Illinois and began her
career at OSF HealthCare in Bloomington. There, she worked her way
up from critical care charge nurse to assistant director of the intensive
care/pediatric intensive care units. “I helped start an open-heart program
there—the first one in the area. It was a great 16-year career at OSF.”
From 2000-2003, Kara served as OSF’s director of critical care.

Around the Country

In 2003, Kara was recruited to Renown Health in Reno, Nevada,
because of her significant cardiac care and emergency experience.
She started as the special care manager of the step-down unit and
eventually became the manager of the 56-bed emergency department.
She stayed until 2008, when she packed up and moved to California to join
Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City as its emergency department director.
The timing of her promotion was also right for furthering her education.
“I decided to get my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing while I
was at Kaiser Permanente,” Kara says. She earned both degrees back-
to-back online, finishing the MSN in 2012. That same year, she was
promoted to critical care service line director at Kaiser’s Walnut Creek
facility. She oversaw the ICU, critical monitoring unit and interventional
services.
Another Adventure

After a couple of interim positions, Kara was ready for her next adventure.
She did a little online networking through LinkedIn and came into contact
with Southwest General Hospital in San Antonio. One thing led to another,
and Kara was hired in fall 2015 as the senior director of the intensive
care units, emergency departments, dialysis and the cath lab. When
the chief nursing officer was promoted to chief informatics officer, Kara
was appointed as the interim CNO. She has served in the position
permanently since October 2016.

www.americansentinel.edu

10 | Transforming Healthcare Through Education