Professor/ Medical Affairs Manager/CRNFA
Davenport University/Baxter World Wide Medical Affairs
Heather D. Kooiker, MSN, RN, CNL, CNOR, CRNFA, is a Mastered prepared, Board Certified Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) who also holds Certifications in Perioperative Registered Nursing (CNOR), along with a Registered Nurse First Assistant Certification (CRNFA). Currently employed by Baxter a a medical affairs manager for Care Solutions Global. The role includes clinical research, identified through clinical gap assessment, driven by improved patient safety, and dissemination of outcomes in the form of written, and verbal clinical collateral. She is also a Professor of Nursing for a BSN Nursing Program, instructing Evidence-Based Practice, Perioperative Nursing, and a Senior Capstone course. Heather maintains her clinical edge by working as a Registered Nurse First Assistant (RNFA) for an ambulatory plastic surgery center PRN. The foundation of her knowledge has been built through 28 years of surgical services work, that experience became diversified when she obtained a Master’s in Nursing. Before joining the academic and medical manufacturing world, she spent many years as a CNL for Surgical Services where she enjoyed project successes as her passion for evidence-based practice grew. She had the privileged of working with multidisciplinary team’s, with the common goal that focused on pressure injury prevention, Surgical Site Infection, among several other identified nursing sensitive indicators, which improved patient outcomes. These goals were met successfully by creating a culture of safety, translating research into evidence-based practice, and eventually improved hospital wide benchmarked patient outcomes. She has several journal publications and has disseminated outcomes nationwide via specialty conferences through live podium and poster presentations. She is the currently the President of the Western Michigan Chapter of AORN, she also sits on the executive bord and is a peer reviewer for the CRNFA portfolio exam, for the National Surgical Assisting Certification.