Kathleen C. Boulter is the Nurse Manager of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU). Ms. Boulter also supervises staff management, policy and procedure development, and oversees multiple grants. In this capacity, she also sits on the NBU Leadership Team, an interdisciplinary working group, ensuring the NBU's mission is executed. Ms. Boulter is dedicated to infection control and occupational safety and uses this passion to mentor and educate NBU staff, as well as regional and national partners.
Ms. Boulter has been involved with the NBU since its inception in 2005. She contributed significantly to developing and refining the standard operating procedures and policies, and she continues to serve as a subject matter expert on the NBU policy development committee. She is a strong nursing advocate for incorporating evidenced-based practice into the policy development process. During the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak of 2014-2016, Ms. Boulter was the Lead RN for the NBU and coordinated both staffing and clinical care for the three patients treated in the NBU. Drawing on her extensive nursing experience, she has also presented at several local and national conferences and contributed to multiple publications concerning biocontainment processes, infection control techniques, and patient care.
When passengers arrived from the Diamond Princess cruise ship at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Boulter took an active role standing up the NBU, notifying staff, and conducting Just in Time training to review infection control processes. Ms. Boulter’s team was able to meet the surge, assist with the transition, and prepare for additional and future COVID-19 patients.
Ms. Boulter is currently leading a long term care initiative through NETEC in partnership with Nebraska ICAP. She is working with a team focused on long term care facility preparedness by conducting site visits, providing educational information, and sharing best practices. She also helps create education and videos for donning and doffing of personal protective equipment and proper waste management, as well as assisting with national webinars hosted by NETEC.
Ms. Boulter began her career in the United Kingdom’s Women’s Royal Air Force where she developed leadership skills and learned the value of proper donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) through biological, chemical, and radiation courses that became the foundation of PPE processes further developed by the NBU team. Ms. Boulter’s nursing career spans a broad range of specialties including nephrology, solid-organ transplant, Community Mobile Nursing project manager serving underserved populations, and educator for medical surgical and intensive care nursing staff.
Ms. Boulter received her undergraduate degree at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom achieving a First Class Honours degree in Nursing. She recently completed a Master’s in Public Health from UNMC focusing on community health education.