By Julie Harper ’01
The project created by acute care nurse practitioner graduate Elizabeth Kattleman proved effective in delivering time-sensitive care to patients with blood clots in their lungs.
“It happens too frequently in my opinion,” says Elizabeth Kattleman of deaths caused by pulmonary embolism.
Kattleman, one of 11 students graduating with a Doctor in Nursing Practice degree from UCF this week, has spent her nursing career in critical care and witnessed first-hand the sudden and deadly outcomes of pulmonary embolism.
Pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot lodges into the arteries of the lungs. It affects approximately 900,000 people in the U.S. annually and can be life-threatening as it blocks or reduces oxygen flow in the body.
Activating Life-saving Actions
For her scholarly project in the adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner DNP program, Kattleman piloted the “Creation of a Pulmonary Embolism Response Team to Increase Catheter-Directed Therapy Utilization” at the hospital in Gainesville where she has worked as a rapid response nurse. Her team recently received a silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence.
Kattleman’s project is based on similar multi-disciplinary rapid response teams in hospitals, such as those that quickly respond to and manage interventions for heart attack and stroke patients.
“A whole team is organized to respond, resources are prepared, and everyone has dedicated roles to save that patient’s life,” she says. “For example, as a rapid response nurse I bring our specialized assessment skills to the bedside of the patient.”
In her research, Kattleman found that patients with an acute pulmonary embolism also need immediate assessment and intervention by specialists and close monitoring.
It works like this. When a patient comes into the hospital with a pulmonary embolism, a team of medical and nursing experts is alerted to quickly assess the patient for severity. Patients with an acute pulmonary embolism who are candidates for catheter-directed therapy are quickly stabilized, monitored and transported to radiology for the time-sensitive and potentially life-saving procedure.
“The idea is that the moment the patient comes into the hospital we can begin treatment proactively,” says Kattleman.
During the three months of the project, there was an increase in the percentage of pulmonary embolism cases that received the therapy.
“The pulmonary embolism alert proved effective in bringing together expert multi-disciplinary clinicians to the bedside promptly and proved an effective intervention for delivery of time-sensitive care to patients with blood clots in their lungs,” says Kattleman.
Preparing for Practice
Kattleman, whose first bachelor’s degree is in kinesiology, was inspired to become a nurse after a friend was in a traumatic car accident. “Those providers and nurses were so amazing,” she says.
After graduating from nursing school, she immediate went to work in critical care including the unit where her friend received care.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she met an acute care nurse practitioner who inspired her to return to school for her doctoral degree.
“I chose UCF because its relatively local, it has an on-campus skills lab and is not solely online, it has professors who are active clinicians and nurse practitioners, and its graduates have a high pass rate on the board certification exams,” she says. “My husband is also an alumnus and spoke highly of his time here.”
In addition to presenting and defending her scholarly project at UCF, Kattleman has presented her research at the local chapter of Sigma, the international nursing honor society, and had a poster presentation at the 2025 PERT Consortium International.
Kattleman pursued her doctoral degree in the part-time track while maintaining her clinical practice, and received scholarship support from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
After graduation, she will remain in Florida like most of UCF’s nursing alumni. She has already accepted a position as an acute care nurse practitioner at UF Health Shands Hospital.
“I am excited to graduate and feel so prepared for my new role,” she says.
“I am looking forward to having the opportunity to practice at the highest level of my license, teach bedside providers, provide holistic support to my patients and their families, and to engage in healthcare innovation.”
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