Karen Zander Collection, 1970-2019

Collection

Identifier: 13-1: Zander, Karen

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection documents Karen Zander’s time after she graduated from IWU. It chronicles her professional career in Nursing and later in Case Management through materials from her time at the New England Medical Center and her company, The Center for Case Management. Materials included are projects she worked on, contracts, consultation information and proposals, conference information, presentations and slides of her work, and many newsletters that she edited. This collection also has her published work and that includes articles, book chapters, papers, and books and media. There are also many research materials such as articles that she was interested in or referenced in her published work. Photos, ephemera, and a scrapbook she made are also included.

This collection is organized into five series:

1. Biographical Information & Correspondence

2. Professional Work

3. Published Work

4. Research

5. Special Formats

Dates

1970-2019

Creator

Zander, Karen, 1948-2020 (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Karen Zander, RN, MS, CMAC, FAAN, PhD Hon. graduated from IWU in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. At IWU she was involved in as many activities as nursing majors including holding offices for three years in Sigma Kappa Sorority, where she served as president in 1969-70. She also received her Master in Science in Psychiatric Nursing from Boston University in 1974. Karen was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from IWU in 2001. Karen was given the IWU Robert Montgomery Outstanding Young Alum award in 1980 and The School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996. She was also inducted into the American Academy of Nursing, one of the highest honors in the profession.

Karen began her career at New England Medical Center Hospitals, Boston, MA. From there, her pioneering work with clinical case management and CareMap™ systems began. She worked with expert staff nurses to develop case management plans. She linked together process, outcome, and cost in a practical way. After practicing there for 19 years in nursing leadership roles, she left and started the company, The Center for Case Management, with Kathleen Bower. At CCM, Karen was able to consult with clients that included hospitals and medical care centers to standardize care, improve and monitor quality, and containing cost. She refined her critical pathway model and devised the CareMap™. The CareMap™ is a tool that uses a cause and effect grid to identify expected patient/family and staff behaviors against a timeline for a case type. These tools were adapted from engineering pathways developed to outline the critical, activities needed to complete a project within certain time frames.

Karen authored many articles and authored and co-authored many books. Her work touched hundreds of hospitals and has had a major impact on nursing as it is currently practiced. Karen was also cellist for the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton, MA. Karen died in her sleep from complications of FTD (Frontotemporal Degeneration) on the morning of August 30th, 2020.