Kelli Sohn is the Infection Preventionist, Educator and an Area Nurse Manager of 1 & 2 North. It this role Kelli helps track and trend infections throughout Rocky Knoll with staff and residents. Her knowledge with infection control has been a big part of developing policies and protocols to help protect residents and staff from COVID-19. Kelli also helps provide education to the staff. As and Area Nurse Manager, Kelli oversees the care of the residents on 1 & 2 North.
Kelli is from Hilbert, WI. She grew up in the country with two younger brothers. Kelli started her nursing career in 2005 when she graduated from Fox Valley Technical College with her Associated Degree in Nursing. She worked at Theda Clark Medical Center, a level 2 trauma center, in Neenah, WI as a Certified Nursing Assistant and then as a Registered Nurse. Here she learned valuable acute care skills with patient care and started her career path in leadership when she became a charge nurse after being a RN for just one year. She also found her love for education, began teaching CPR classes as well as being an Epic Superuser, helping other staff learn to use the documentation software. Kelli also was on multiple project improvement events where she learned a great deal about quality improvement in healthcare.
Kelli then explored her interest in education and taught Certified Nursing Assistant courses along with CBRF courses for staff at long term care facilities. She also completed her Bachelors of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and started a Masters Degree Program for Nursing Education thru Walden University. Kelli found a new love in the long term care environment and started working at a long term care facility in Little Chute, WI as a shift supervisor and obtained certification as a wound nurse. After a short time there she was asked to step in as an Interim Director of Nursing. After filling in this position for several months she was transferred to a facility Plymouth, WI where she worked as the Director of Nursing.
As a DON at Plymouth Care Center, Kelli had may accomplishments. She worked hard with the staff to build a stronger environment of resident centered care. With that the facility was able to eliminate all personal alarms and decrease the number of falls in the facility. The team decreased the number of facility acquired pressure ulcers, strengthened the safe resident handling program, introduced Music and Memory, created an enhanced dining experience, among many other improvements. The facility achieved a 5 star rating for several years and had 2 years in a row of no nursing citations during the annual facility state survey.
As life changed for Kelli with a new relationship she was looking for a job with a little slower pace and less demand. She started working at Pine Haven Christian Communities as an Educator and Infection Preventionist. She returned to teaching CBRF classes and CPR. She also learned a great deal about a popular long term care documentation system, Point Click Care where she re-worked assessments and helped make the system work more efficiently for staff so they had more time to spend with residents. During this time Kelli got married to Josh and became a bonus Mom to two wonderful girls, Julia and Megan.
Kelli took a little time off when she welcomed her first biological child, Miles, in August of 2019. After many months of being able to spend some time at home with him she decided to return to the working world. Rocky Knoll reached out to Kelli to see if she would be interested in working as their Infection Preventionsit, Educator, and Area Nurse Manager. Kelli brings with her a great deal of knowledge of the long term care industry.
