Unit Manager
UCLA Health
I started my career over 15 years ago as a critical care nurse in the Burn Unit at UCSD, treating both adult and pediatric patients. From there I became an Organ Procurement Coordinator with Lifesharing, which led me down the transplant path and to a long stint working as a critical care nurse on UCLA's Liver Transplant and Specialty Surgery ICU. Caring for surgical patients has been a passion throughout my career and is what led me to join the UCLA Community Ambulatory Surgery Centers shortly after they opened, as a Pre-Op and PACU nurse. I am now the Unit Manager for two of the Community ASCs.
Starting at the Community ASCs offered a chance to be involved in the development of new policies and practices for these settings, and I was excited by the opportunity. Nurses in the ambulatory surgical setting must wear many hats to fill many roles. My knowledge of the perioperative setting has grown exponentially in the last five years, from PTU and PACU, to the intraoperative setting, sterile processing, materials management, pharmacy management, infection prevention, insurance contracting, business development, and more. My involvement in so many facets of the perioperative domain has provided me with a wide array of opportunities and ideas for performance and quality improvement initiatives.