Higdon named chief nursing officer

Karen Higdon has been named chief nursing officer at Baptist Hospital Northeast.

Higdon has been director of Patient Care Services at Norton Hospital for three years. Prior to that, she was nurse manager of the Transitional Care Unit at Norton Audubon Hospital for two years, clinical liaison at Kindred Hospital for two years, and worked at University of Louisville Hospital for 11 years, working her way from assistant nurse manager of the Emergency Department to STAT Flight nurse and eventually to STAT Flight director. She also owned her own appraisal service for six years.

Higdon received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green in 1985, a master’s degree in nursing administration and leadership from the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville in 2008, and will obtain a doctorate in nursing practice from there in May 2012.