Jean McDonald graduated from Harrisburg Area Community College in 1975. There she earned her Associates Degree and began her practice as a registered nurse in acute care. She expanded her experience base until taking a professional break to begin a family and returned to acute care nursing in 1984. She found her niche in critical nursing and eventually specialized in cardiac medical and surgical intensive care. At that point, she became involved in care management for the open heart patient population. In 1998 she moved to utilization management and grew into cardiac case management.

Jean graduated from York College of Pa with BSN in 2006. She has been functioning as a team leader for the nurse case managers and social workers within the cardiac areas of Pinnacle Health in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is a front line resource for her team and is also responsible for case managing the entire cardiac patient population a Pinnacle Health.

She sits on several administration level committees for process and quality improvement. She has been responsible for developing process to improve the health systems compliance to quality measures as dictated by CMS. She is the primary author for her departments Career Development Pathway, providing the opportunity for advancement within established roles of case managers and social workers.

She has been awarded Pinnacle’s Nursing Excellence Award for 2006 in the Teamwork category. She has recently achieved CCM certification and is a new member of the Case Management Society of America.