A veteran nursing leader who has led Memorial Hospital’s cardiovascular, neurosciences and critical care programs to prominence, has been named associate chief nursing officer for Memorial Hospital North.

Tamera Dunseth-Rosenbaum began serving Monday as the go-to, full-time leader at MHN, giving the hospital an executive to provide stability and manage day-to-day operations at the hospital.

“This is great news,’’ said Dr. Vishal Rana, an oncologist at Memorial Hospital North. “This is good for patient care and this will ensure that we maintain a high standard for nursing care across the whole system.’’

Dunseth-Rosenbaum takes the helm at MHN at a time when it is experiencing explosive growth. In the past 12-18 months, orthopedic, oncology and cardiovascular services has grown dramatically. A sparkling new heart catheterization lab has opened and Level III Trauma designation has been achieved in the Emergency Department. In addition, the oncology service line will be expanding its footprint at MHN with a new linear accelerator, which is to open in early April.

“I’m honored to be selected for this position. We have great people at Memorial, and I’m excited to lead them. There is an amazing team at Memorial North, and they are providing amazing patient care. The future there holds much promise,’’ Dunseth-Rosenbaum said.

In her first 90 days, Dunseth-Rosenbaum said she will try to learn all that she can about MHN. Just before Thanksgiving, she conducted a gap analysis of the campus, though she said: “It wasn’t what I’d call a deep dive, it was a shallow dive. In the next three months, I’ll take that deep dive.’’

She won’t wait that long, however, to try and achieve some quick wins. Ensuring that MHN has some basic, and a few additional services, to better care for the expanding patient population at MHN will be among the first things Dunseth-Rosenbaum would like to achieve.

“I want to identify the ‘shin bumpers’ — identify things that are causing staff and physicians a lot of frustration and angst — and put energy towards fixing those things,’’ she said. “I’ve always believed that the role of an administrator is to ensure that bedside clinical staff has the resources needed to provide excellent patient care.’’

The daughter of a middle school principal, Dunseth-Rosenbaum was always a good student of science. Her father encouraged her to seek a career in nursing. She first thought she might seek a career in journalism, but after a dreadfully boring course on the history of the British Broadcasting Co., she changed her mind.

A course in anatomy and physiology reinforced her love of science, and she selected nursing as a career. In her decade at Memorial, she has been a key figure in the hospital achieving chest pain, stroke center, and atrial fibrillation recognition and more. She’s been deeply involved in helping with the improvements at Memorial Hospital Central, which has new private patient rooms, a new electrophysiology suite and is soon to have a new hybrid OR.

“I think Memorial is just going to get better and better. Having been here for so long and seeing all of the transitions with all of the different executives, it’s been challenging. With UCHealth, I can’t think of a time in the 10 years that I’ve been here where the future looks so bright for us. We are just going to continue to grow and get better,’’ she said.

Much of that growth in Colorado Springs, she believes, will occur on the campus of MHN.

“North has grown by leaps and bounds, but we haven’t subsequently grown the structure, so I think with this position, that is going to be a huge help,’’ she said. “The volume has increased exponentially since the inception of MHN. We’ve ramped up orthopedics there, and we have the cath lab, radiology services, oncology and a Level III designation for the ED. The downstream trickle effect of performing all of those services there is huge.’’

She believes that MHN will continue to see robust growth in the coming years and she believes that her experience in helping service lines improve will be invaluable in helping guide growth at North in early April.

April Smith, the OR clinical manager at MHN, said she sees the addition of a full-time executive for North as a positive move.

“I definitely do think that North needs a full-time administrator, and Tamera’s presence here will be very welcome. We’ve gone from a small community hospital to a thriving boutique hospital. People keep saying, ‘We’re a real hospital’ because of all of the growth we have had here,’’ Smith said.

Now, it has a full-time leader to help it grow even more.