Kathleen Bartholomew Headshot
Report a problem with this profile
[email protected]

Kathleen Bartholomew  

Expert on Hospital Culture

With a background in sociology and past positions in marketing, business, communications, and teaching, registered nurse Kathleen Bartholomew approaches nursing with a fresh perspective, allowing her to probe into the human side of the healthcare industry. Bartholomew has been a national speaker for the nursing profession for over a decade. As the manager of a 57-bed surgical unit at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, she quickly recognized that creating a culture where staff felt a sense of belonging was critical to retention. During her tenure as manager, she encouraged staff to connect and value one another and implemented her down-to-earth strategies for creating community, significantly improving staff, physician, and patient satisfaction. Despite the nursing shortage, Bartholomew could always depend on a waiting list of nurses for her unit.

Bartholomew is the author of "Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication" and "Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility". She has won the best media depiction of nursing for her Op Ed in The Seattle P.I. and was nominated by HealthLeaders Media as one of the top 20 people changing healthcare in America.

Kathleen Bartholomew’s passion for creating healthy work environments is infectious. She is an expert on hospital culture and speaks internationally to hospital boards, the military, leadership, and staff about safety, communication, cultural change, and power. With her husband, John J. Nance, she co-authored Charting the Course: Launching Patient-Centric Healthcare.

Speech Topics


Leading a Patient-Centric Culture: Beyond Scores & Stats

Culture has repeatedly been identified as the greatest barrier to patient safety. Using Professor Diamond's "Collapse" framework, speaker Kathleen Bartholomew offers a fresh and fascinating look at the hospital safety culture with an emphasis on sociology. Patient safety can never be achieved as a top-down driven initiative. Safety is a core value. In this session, leaders will learn how to identify their culture beyond the statistics and sustain the value system and behaviors critical to keeping our patients safe.

Nursing Leadership: "If Not Us, Then Who?"

"Knowledge utilization" identifies what kind of information people need to be most effective. According to this research, "generals" need concepts and "captains" need strategies and tactics. Using Professor Diamond's "Collapse" framework, speaker Kathleen Bartholomew offers a fresh and fascinating look at the nursing profession within the American healthcare system and sounds a call to arms to rally healthcare professionals.

Participants will:

  • List three reasons why groups fail at decision making
  • Discuss the impact of perception on patient safety and quality care
  • Identify two major concepts that would provide perspective and power to nursing leaders Understand how to maximize power and resources within a human institution

A Passion for the Art of Nursing

Nursing is both a science and an art. The science of nursing requires us to stimulate our minds while the art of nursing engages our soul. As we tackle the everyday challenges, it is clear that many of us have forgotten the joy of nursing. Using the power of story, speaker Kathleen Bartholomew inspires nurses to be in awe of and appreciate their work.

You will:

  • Re-kindle your passion for the nursing profession
  • Describe the importance of practicing both the art and science of nursing
  • Identify two situations in your practice where you have experienced or observed nursing as "art"

Charting the Course: Innovative Leadership in the Face of Healthcare Reform

In this dynamic program based on the book Charting the Course: Launching Patient-Centric Healthcare, co-authors and speakers Kathleen Bartholomew and John J. Nance explain which steps must be taken by senior and middle management to lead your people to break free of "the way we've always done it" syndrome. They provide a crystal-clear understanding for all who work in the American healthcare industry of what has to be done - and in what order - to create a unified institution in which all members are truly dedicated to zero harm, the highest quality of care, communication, teamwork in its highest expression, and a common level of ownership

Related Speakers View all


More like Kathleen