Ashley Lunkenheimer
Derby,KS
Summary
Multi-talented nursing leader and mentor consistently recognized for a collaborative approach and engaging style of leadership with well established success in employee retention, patient experience, shared governance, regulatory compliance and operational expertise.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
National Emergency Medicine Office Nurse Executive
Veterans Health Administration VHA
Washington, D.C.
06.2024 - Current
- Serves as the primary nursing expert within Emergency Medicine to advise and evaluate nursing care.
- Provides consultation to the National Emergency Medicine Office (NEMO) and Office of Nursing Service (ONS), and other VA program offices, facilities and units for all matters as necessary related to Emergency Medicine nursing care.
- Establishes and maintains strategic relationships with key organizational partners, including the Emergency Nurses Association, to enhance collaborative efforts and improve emergency care standards.
- Leads the implementation of the National Tele-Emergency Care Program, ensuring seamless integration with existing emergency care services to expand access and improve patient outcomes across multiple facilities.
- Oversees the development and execution of national policies and procedures related to emergency medicine nursing, driving consistency and quality of care across all VHA emergency departments.
- Collaborates with cross-functional teams, including clinical leaders and technology experts, to design and deploy innovative emergency care solutions, including telehealth initiatives and advanced clinical protocols.
- Monitors and evaluate the performance of emergency care services, using data-driven insights to inform continuous improvement initiatives and optimize patient care delivery.
- Advocate for emergency nursing best practices and professional development, aligning national strategies with evidence-based standards to elevate the role of emergency nurses within the VHA system.
- Facilitates communication and coordination among VHA emergency care stakeholders, ensuring alignment of national initiatives with local and regional priorities to enhance overall system performance.
Chief- Quality, Safety, and Value- NIV
Robert J Dole Veterans Administration
Wichita, KS
08.2022 - 08.2024
- Lead facility through most successful Office of Inspector General survey in facility history with only 1 recommendation by team.
- Lead facility through triennial The Joint Commission survey with minimal direct patient care findings and developed action plans to collaborate with facility leaders in process improvement.
- Developed organizational structure to better support facility with addition of 11 new roles and programs.
- Decreased enterprise wide 5th quintile measures to from one SAIL measure to four.
- Lead the Systems Redesign team to reaching the highest inpatient patient experience scores in Dole VA history.
Emergency Room/Employee Health Nurse Manager- NIII
Robert J Dole Veterans Administration
Wichita, KS
04.2020 - 08.2022
- Developed and executed employee engagement strategies including unit based council, self-scheduling modality, and promotion and mentorship of new assistant nurse manager role for department.
- Established first ever telestroke program for facility to improve Veteran access to neurological specific care.
- Implemented patient experience strategies such as nurse first, team assessment, and pull-to-full mechanisms.
- Lead both units successfully through COVID-19 pandemic through planning, collaboration, frequent and effective communication and continual review of newest guidance.
- Served at national level as VISN 15 emergency room nurse champion guiding and mentoring all emergency nurse leaders in region, dissemination of information, accountability of deadlines, and mentoring of struggling facilities.
- Significantly improved several key processes to influence metrics for emergency care including STEMI, Sepsis, admission, and interfacility transfer processes.
Chief Nursing Officer
Sumner Community Hospital
09.2019 - 04.2020
- Recruited new professional staff members and implemented comprehensive training programs.
- Maximized staff and patient protections by enforcing optimal disease prevention protocols.
- Maintained proper staff levels within budget parameters to deliver high levels of care to every patient.
- Designed and implemented standards of care for nursing and patient care.
- Provided direct nursing care to patients when personnel was short-staffed.
- Supervised all staff and clinical operations within emergency department, operating room, medical surgical floor, geriatric behavioral health unit, outpatient clinic and infusion as well as family practice clinic.
Director of Nursing
Wesley Medical Center, Acute Care Service Line
03.2018 - 08.2019
- Maximized patient experience scores to highest level in service line history by engaging team members in personal connection
- Oversaw direct care of 200+ inpatient beds for medical surgical and step-down ICU patients
- Directed 250 FTE's of managers, coordinators, registered nurses, certified nurses assistants and unit secretaries in care delivery of patients
- Created engaging, collaborative culture reaching highest employee engagement scores in service line history
- Maintained regulatory compliance standards at expert level preventing any direct-nursing findings within service line during 2019 initial and revisit joint commission surveys
- Collaborated with multidisciplinary groups such as physicians, physical therapists, case management, laboratory services, pastoral care and many others in patient centered care with emphasis on quality and safety
- Selected, trained and mentored seven nursing managers and two clinical coordinators who reached highest leader sustainability and stability in service line history
- Developed employee engagement firestarter committee for every unit resulting in 70-80 percentile employee engagement score which was an average of 40 point increase from prior year
- Decreased average daily census by 1.4 days by implementing throughput program including interim throughput director, focusing on diagnosis specific length of stay goals and developing inpatient tracker boards to drive throughput metrics
Assistant Director of Nursing
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
03.2016 - 03.2018
- Nursing leader for main emergency room, level 1 trauma center
- Developed, planned and executed expansion of beds by creating low-acuity strategy resulting in less than 10 minute average door to doctor time, lowest in corporation for level 1 trauma center
- Project manager of development, construction and execution of new pediatric emergency room, establishing separate ER within main ER specifically for pediatric population and their families
- Established collaborative process for market with Sedgwick county EMS and local ER's to reduce need for diversion and increase patient acceptance to facility by strategically placing patients throughout market to avoid over-saturation of market.
- Created leadership support structure for market to provide sustainability in leadership and thus consistency in processes and personnel
- Direct supervisor of nursing manager and two clinical coordinators mentoring them in leadership techniques including FTE allocation, personnel decisions and business strategy
Nursing Manager
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
04.2014 - 03.2016
- Reduced employee turnover from 74% to 9% within 1 year
- Reached highest patient experience scores in unit history and sustained patient experience scores through 2019
- Developed nurse technician recruitment strategy resulting in successful retention of RN's later deployed throughout division in hospitals throughout Kansas and Colorado
- Implemented shared governance, unit based counsel and employee engagement strategies directed towards retention of staff members and increased voice in workplace
- Focused on throughput opportunities reducing arrival to greet average from 64 minutes to 5 minutes and reaching number 1 in company for discharge length of stay
Emergency Department Registered Nurse- NII
Robert J Dole VA
Wichita, KS
09.2013 - 04.2014
- Collaborated with physicians to quickly assess patients and deliver appropriate treatment while managing rapidly changing conditions.
- Communicated openly and collaboratively with all healthcare staff to organize successful patient care.
- Administered medications via oral, IV and intramuscular injections and monitored responses.
- Developed a self-scheduling model for emergency department staff to increase employee engagement and retention.
- Educated patients and answered questions about health condition, prognosis and treatment.
Assistant Nurse Manager
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
11.2011 - 09.2013
- Oversaw day-to-day functions of level one trauma center 50 bed emergency room
- Implemented throughput registered nurse process reducing length of stay and arrival to greet
- Created self-scheduling model which was first in system promoting work-life balance for clinicians and attracting new clinicians to service line
- Developed structure to elevate practice of charge nurses encouraging them to employee round, patient round and take lead on operational decision making
Registered Nurse
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
05.2010 - 11.2011
- Provided care to 3-5 emergency room patients at a time balancing priorities
- Successfully met care objectives for patients of all ages and acuity including pediatrics, geriatrics, obstetrics, psychiatric and general adult care
- Served as a team leader overseeing nurses, paramedics and EMT's in the care of patients
- Shared knowledge by serving as a preceptor for new nurses
Education
Doctor of Nursing Practice - Nursing Administration
Aspen University
Aspen, CO04.2022
Master of Science - Nursing Administration
Aspen University
Aspen, CO01.2013
Bachelor of Science - Nursing
Wichita State University
Kansas07.2011
Associate of Applied Science - Nursing
Butler Community College
Kansas05.2010
Accomplishments
- Certificate of Appreciation- Dr. Shereef Elnahal
- 2023 Healthcare Leadership Development Program Graduate
- Directors Commendation Award
- Emergency Nurses Association Annual Conference Speaker
- Four-Time Daisy Award Recipient
- Excellence in Caring Award Recipient
Certification
- Certified Emergency Room Nurse
- Nurse Executive Board Certified
- Prosci Change Practitioner
- Lean Six Sigma- Yellow Belt
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support Instructor
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support
- Pediatric Advanced Life Support
- Trauma Nurse Core Course
- Basic Life Support
Additional Information
- Dr. Doug Villard, National Emergency Medicine Office
- Dr. Adrian D'Amico National Emergency Medicine Office
- Mr. Benjamin Thelen, Chief Nurse Emergency Services
- Ms. Sharon Henderson, National Emergency Medicine Office
- Ms. Melody Queenan, VISN 15 Deputy Chief Quality Officer
- Ms. Lisa Hamilton, Reno VA Deputy Medical Center Director
- Ms. Candace Ifabiyi, St. Louis VA Medical Center Director
- Ms. Alicia Miller, Wisconsin Rapids Medical Center Director
- Ms. Chandra Miller, Wichita VA Medical Center Director
- Dr. Jose Cepeda, Wichita Emergency Medicine Chief
Timeline
National Emergency Medicine Office Nurse Executive
Veterans Health Administration VHA
06.2024 - Current
Chief- Quality, Safety, and Value- NIV
Robert J Dole Veterans Administration
08.2022 - 08.2024
Emergency Room/Employee Health Nurse Manager- NIII
Robert J Dole Veterans Administration
04.2020 - 08.2022
Chief Nursing Officer
Sumner Community Hospital
09.2019 - 04.2020
Director of Nursing
Wesley Medical Center, Acute Care Service Line
03.2018 - 08.2019
Assistant Director of Nursing
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
03.2016 - 03.2018
Nursing Manager
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
04.2014 - 03.2016
Emergency Department Registered Nurse- NII
Robert J Dole VA
09.2013 - 04.2014
Assistant Nurse Manager
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
11.2011 - 09.2013
Registered Nurse
Wesley Medical Center, Emergency Room
05.2010 - 11.2011
Doctor of Nursing Practice - Nursing Administration
Aspen University
Master of Science - Nursing Administration
Aspen University
Bachelor of Science - Nursing
Wichita State University
Associate of Applied Science - Nursing
Butler Community College