Katherine A Baumgartner

Assistant Professor

Katherine has taught for Augsburg College since 2005, starting as an adjunct instructor and joining the fulltime faculty the fall of 2006. Katherine brings her experience and commitment to nursing to the B.S.N. completion program.

Katherine has been employed by Fairview Health Services since 1989 in a variety of positions, including quality coordinator for home care and hospice as well as performance excellence consultant. Her 20-plus years of clinical care include the acute care hospital as well as home care and hospice. She has developed two home care and hospice agencies, Medicare certified and JCAHO accredited, one at Fairview and one at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Texas. In her current role at Fairview, she teaches classes on process improvement methodologies, including Six Sigma and Lean as well as facilitating process improvement teams within the healthcare system.

Katherine has a keen interest in transcultural nursing and has participated in several international trips through Augsburg’s nursing department as well as co-leading one Augsburg nursing practicum to Mexico in 2006.

Education

• B.S.N, Minnesota State University, Mankato
• M.A. in Nursing, Augsburg College
• Adult Nurse Practitioner Certificate Program, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
• Green Belt Certification in Six Sigma Methodology

Publications

Baumgartner, K., Laing, K. (2005). Implementing “Lean” principles to improve the efficiency of the endoscopy department of a community hospital. Gastroenterology Nursing 28(3), 210-215.

Professional Memberships

• Transcultural Nursing Society
• Cultural Competency Team, Fairview Health Services

Areas of Teaching Responsibility

• Nursing Communication
• Paradigms in Nursing
• Trends and Issues in Nursing
• Families and the Life Cycle
• Community Nursing