Chelsea Dunthorn, RN, BSN, CNOR

Chelsea Dunthorn is the Operating Room & PACU Clinical Nurse Educator at Legacy Meridian Park in Tualatin, Oregon. She attended college at the University of Portland, graduating with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing in 2017. Chelsea started her perioperative nursing career in February of 2019, becoming the educator a year later. Since then, she has become the Co-Chair of the Meridian Park Educator’s Council, and joined the Columbia River Region Chapter.  Dunthorn helped with the implementation of smoke evacuation in the operating room, with 100% compliance from surgeons. Dunthorn was nominated for the 2022 Legacy Quality Improvement Award for her work on orienting OR nurses to help care for patients on medical and surgical floors during the Covid-19 surges.

Dunthorn’s compassion makes her a thoughtful, caring, and motivated leader.  She uses her skills to encourage others to work hard and succeed.  Dunthorn is very passionate about the orientation process for new RNs in the OR.  She is making a difference by implementing a “Coaching Model” style orientation for new nurses. Dunthorn has been asked to present her orientation process to the Legacy Health system, to create a successful, thorough, and engaging orientation process in the perioperative environment system-wide.