Kathleen G. Burke, PhD, RN, CENP, FAAN

The evidence-based Nursing Residency Program supports new-to-practice nurses during their first 12 months on the job with continuing education, coaching, and support. Each year, up to 300 nurses go through the program, and 90% of them stay in their jobs. Penn’s Nursing Residency program is one of a few accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

The Distinguished Nurse Clinician Academy, launched in 2016, recognizes nurses nominated by their peers who exemplify the highest standards of clinical excellence and professionalism. The distinguished nurses mentor other nurses and participate in professional development programs. Distinguished Nurse Clinician Academy leaders collaborate with the Academy of Masters Clinicians, a similar Penn program for physicians, to promote excellent clinical care system-wide.

Dr. Burke and her team also generate research and best practices on educating nurses in a practice setting. In a recent study, the team used the Delphi consensus-building methodology to identify 186 nursing competencies required to provide safe, high-quality care in today’s current complex health system. Next steps include refining the key competencies and developing professional development programs to help Penn Medicine Health System nurses develop or enhance these competencies.

As assistant dean of clinical nurse learning and innovation at Penn Nursing, Dr. Burke provides strategic leadership in developing innovative learning initiatives to address the practice to education gap and build academic-practice partnerships. Inter-professional teamwork, required for excellent patient care, is a key focus of innovative learning initiatives.

Dr. Burke developed and co-directs along with medical school faculty member Jennifer Myers MD, “Principles and Practice of Healthcare Quality Improvement” (NURS612), the first inter-professional graduate course on this topic. Graduate nursing students and medical students learn the principles and tools of quality improvement and patient safety and work together to solve problems. Faculty from Penn Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine co-teach the course, which is part of the Nursing and Health Care Administration Graduate Nursing Program.

Students in nursing, pharmacy, medicine, social work, and healthcare administration take another course that Dr. Burke co directs, “Systems Thinking in Patient Safety” (NURS650). Also part of the Nursing and Health Care Administration Graduate Nursing Program, Dr. Burke co-teaches this course with Penn Nursing faculty member Susan K. Keim, MSN, MS, CRNP.

• Fellow, American Academy of Nursing
• Faculty Advisor and Mentor, Inter-professional Fellowship in Patient Safety, Department of Veteran Affairs
• Faculty Consultant, Quality and Safety in Education
• Certified in Executive Nursing Practice
• Elected Member, Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education board of Directors January 2017