Karen Flangan

Professional Summary

Dynamic Clinical Nurse Specialist and leader with proven track record of successfully managing projects and initiatives, leading interdisciplinary teams and achieving desired organizational objectives. Skilled in managing nursing orientation and developing nursing competencies, policies and procedures. Consistently produces tangible outcomes that exceed expectations.

• National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Mentor of the Year - 2022.
• Co-executed, providing project management and oversight, to an $11.9M Inpatient Admissions project between the Department of Defense and the North Florida/South Georgia Veteran’s Health System (NF/SG VHS). Efforts led to a two-year partnership that expanded access to care for the NF/SGVHS veterans admitted to Naval Hospital Jacksonville.
• Vice-President of the Navy’s Bureau of Surgery and Medicine’s (BUMED) Clinical Nurse Specialist Advisory Board (CNSAB): provided leadership and mentorship to 59 Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) across 30 military treatments facilities (MTFs). Led CNS clinical inquiry collaboration through oversight of six CNSAB priority goal teams.
• Initiated efforts and collaborated with the BUMED Emergency/Trauma Nursing (1945) Specialty Leaders reducing redundant Elsevier Clinical Skills 1945 Core Competencies by 63% resulting in a more effective program that increased completion rates and deployment readiness of Navy emergency nurses from 70.8% to 96.0%.
• Revised the BUMED Nurse Residency Program policy in 2018 and 2022.
• Successfully piloted the BUMED Shared Governance Model initiative to include implementation of Unit Practice Councils for Naval Hospital Guam. Served as an exemplar for other Navy MTFs.
• Created Code Stroke policy at Naval Hospital Jacksonville.
• Led interdisciplinary team in the standardization and matching of critical care drugs across the organization to include the Pharmacy Adult Intravenous Medication Dilution Chart, Adult Crash Cart Guide, and the Alaris Guardrails at both Naval Hospitals Jacksonville and Guam ensuring safe, quality patient care.
• Led interdisciplinary teams that created the Clinical Alarm Management policy, staff training and nursing competencies for Naval Hospitals’ Jacksonville and Guam.
• Led interdisciplinary Failure, Modes and Effects Analysis and Lean Six Sigma/Green Belt project to reduce blood culture contamination rates at Naval Hospital Jacksonville.
• Spear-headed the implementation of Nurse First Triage at Naval Hospital Jacksonville’s Emergency Department that resulted in a triage reduction time of 75%, increased patient satisfaction by 30%, and decreased the door to treatment time for the patient population.
• Green Belt Team Lead that restructured the admissions and transfer process that decreased the length of stay in the ED at Naval Hospital Jacksonville to a median average time of 113 minutes.
• Led or served as a member of 91 quality improvement and training initiatives over 19 years.
• Developed or updated 88 BUMED, systems and unit level policies and procedures and nursing competencies ensuring they were aligned with evidence-based practice over 19 years.
• Instructor for Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Basic Life Support, Trauma Nurse Core Course, Basic Rhythm Recognition, and Basic Emergency Medical Technician Course for 10 years.
• Successfully served in the U.S. Navy for 35 years.

• National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
• Emergency Nursing Association
• Association of Critical Care Nurses

• Acute Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Adult – Gerontology (ACCNS-AG)
• Adult – Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP-BC)
• Certification Certification in Emergency Nursing (CEN)
• Trauma Nursing Core Course Faculty, Course Director, and Instructor
• Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support Provider (AHA)
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support Provider (AHA)
• Basic Life Support Provider (AHA)
• Advanced Burn Life Support Provider
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification