Spring 08
Vol. 15/ No. 1

Alumnus
of the Year

Suzanne (Burton) Cram
BSN 1969

For 39 years, Suzanne ( Burton ) Cram has walked the halls of acute-care hospitals serving her community's health care needs.

Beginning her career as a bedside nurse at University Hospital in Columbia , Cram is intimately aware of what quality health care entails and by using her leadership skills she has brought that meaning to life. She has proven time and time again that forging interdisciplinary teams can make substantial improvements in the health care arena.

“Susie's positive attitude and strong leadership skills made the difference between the success or failure of nurse practitioners practicing at University Hospital ,” says Susan Felten, a family nurse practitioner for the division of general surgery at the hospital. “Personally and professionally, she impacted my life like no one else ever has. Her leadership has, and continues, to influence nursing practice around the globe.”

Cram's efforts resulted in the first nurse practitioners in the nation to practice in a general surgery setting within a hospital. “She helped enhance the educational content of general surgery residency training as well as improving patient care,” says Michael Metzler, Director of Trauma Services at Sunrise Medical Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

She proceeded to convince this group that nurses, respiratory therapists and surgeons could provide better care when integrated as a dedicated, multidisciplinary team. In her past role as chief operating officer of Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cram continued to pioneer advance care collaboratives. She was instrumental in that hospital's Gamma Knife Center and changed the unique patterns of health care that developed in the nation's fastest growing population.

“These changes bear her hallmark of placing nurses in responsible care positions and developing multidisciplinary collaboration to improve patient care,” Metzler continues. “She is a visionary in her thinking and she uses her administrative position to make these programs work.”

In her current position of chief executive officer at the Desert Canyon Rehabilitation Hospital in Nevada, Cram has brought to life the vision of a compassionate rehab organization that is unsurpassed in quality.

“Susie continues to demonstrate her commitment to holding nursing in the highest regard and setting plans in place to assure that the profession of nursing is represented at the utmost levels of administration and oversight,” says Dr. Carolyn McCarroll, Center for Excellence in Women's Health director and former dean of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “When you talk with Susie you realize the depth of her commitment to nursing and her passion directed at advancing professional nursing within the health care systems.”

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