Kristen Nordenholz

MD, FACEP

Dr. Nordenholz is core faculty at the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine and a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She has dedicated her career to advancing clinical excellence and training learners at all levels.

Early in her career, Dr. Nordenholz returned to academics after 5 years of leading the small but busy emergency department in Tuba City, Ariz. with the Indian Health Service, where she learned the Navajo focus on health as “beauty all around us." In Colorado she completed a master's degree in clinical research and continues to improve patient care with ultrasound, researching venous thromboembolism diagnosis and treatment, and developing multiple clinical pathways embedded in the electronic health record.

She continues to be active in ACEP's Professional Wellness Section (councilor, subcommittee charis), and is the current Chair of ACEP's Professional Wellbeing Committee.  She is President-Elect for Colorado ACEP Chapter.

Dr. Nordenholz participated in the Society for Academic Emergency (SAEM) Consensus Conference on “Wellness for the Future:  Cultural and Systems-Based Challenges and Solutions.” She has multiple presentations and publications on wellness, including a recent ACEP webinar on "Reinvigorating Emergency Medicine: Overcoming Compassion Fatgiue."

She is a passionate educator and researcher, teaching and working to improve patient experience and communication while strongly advocating for physician wellness.  Dr. Nordenholz adamantly believes in the Quadruple Aim, that clinician wellbeing is critical to achieving outstanding patient care. To that end, she supports physician unionization.