BIOGRAPHY
Susan Dunn grew up in Arlington, MA. In 1966, she graduated from St Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing in Brighton, MA. In September 1966, after passing the Massachusetts state Registered Nurse Boards, she joined the Army Nurse Corps.
During her Army career she was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and then 24th Evac Hospital in Long Binh, Vietnam, spending most of her time working on the Neurosurgery Unit caring for young men with head and spinal cord injury. At the time of her honorable discharge from the army she was a Captain in rank and had received an army commendation medal. After Vietnam she worked in the Intensive Care and Recovery Room at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, MA, attended Lowell State College to attain her B.S.N degree, and then moved to Seattle, WA to attend University of Washington Family and Community Health Nursing Program for a Master’s in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner. Her first Nurse Practitioner position was with Columbia Lutheran Health Center to start an outpatient program as an extension of a skilled Nursing Facility and Adult Day Health Program. It was the first program of its kind in the State of Washington and possibly the U.S., and attracted much attention when she was asked to present the program at the State Council on Aging. She later moved to Northern California and worked in Intensive Care at Providence Hospital in Oakland, then for three years as a Director of Nursing at Wayne Rounseville Memorial Convalescent Hospital, now Oakland Rehab Hospital. After this, she worked at UCSF School of Nursing as Visiting Lecturer and clinical preceptor for Geriatric clinical specialist students. While at UCSF she was the second author for an article on functional assessment with Glen Doyle as primary author. She went on to work at Hillhaven Corporation, a chain of skilled nursing facilities, as Professional Services Consultant for seven years. This position included quality assurance monitoring with facility visits and presenting recommendations for improvement to the Director of Nursing and Facility Administrator, training Staff Development Coordinators and Directors of Nursing, and writing Policy and Procedure manuals. For six years in the 1990’s, Susan worked for Medpartners/Mulliken Medical Centers in southern California as a Nurse Practitioner and Case Manager. She also performed home and assisted living visits for clients unable to get out easily to see their physicians. She completed her full-time career at Veteran’s Administration Palo Alto Healthcare System as a Nurse Practitioner for 14 years, working with patients with psychiatric conditions in a skilled nursing facility in Menlo Park, CA. This position held a strong interdisciplinary team focus which contributed significantly to the quality of patient care. During retirement Susan has enjoyed living in a senior retirement community with her dog and cats. She has held some part time positions but mostly enjoyed volunteer work with her church and organizations such as Loaves and Fishes, Animal Rescue, and Emergency preparedness. The Covid 19 pandemic led her to consider how she might apply her rich background to some area of work which could be done mostly from home when she received an E-mail inviting nurses to consider becoming a Legal Nurse Consultant through Jurex. Many years ago she had a desire to do such work when a similar ad from Jurex presented this option, but always felt her primary attention must be to her full-time work and home life. However, NOW IS THE TIME, and she is ready to join your legal team! |