Caring for kids with complex illness is her passion

If you ask Nurse Practitioner Katie Krawzak why she wanted to work in pediatric palliative care medicine, she will tell you, “I learned from the best. I spent my childhood observing my mom, a dedicated palliative care and hospice nurse. She remains one of my most important mentors and continues to motivate me to pursue a career I love.” 

Graduating from Illinois Wesleyan School of Nursing with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Krawzak was quickly drawn to the sickest of the sick and learning how to optimize their care. During her clinical rotations while pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice at Rush University, the opportunity to spend time with a palliative care team was not offered. So, she lobbied hard to have that rotation and afterwards knew that was the direction her career would take her. Krawzak has been a part of the Pediatric Advanced Care Team at Advocate Children’s Hospital since 2017 and has never looked back. 

“My goal is to have my patients not only live with their disease, but to live alongside their disease,” she says. “The team’s focus is to care for kids with complex illness and help optimize their quality of life by providing excellent symptom management and help them live their best life, continuing to do what they want to do.” 

Together with Dr. Rani Ganesan, Krawzak co-founded the Stepping Up With Sickle Cell Disease Activity Challenge at Advocate Children’s. Many children with sickle cell disease experience chronic pain daily. Understandably, motivation to stay active can be difficult, but by participating in this challenge, teens can form a habit of moving daily to improve their overall health and wellness. They just completed their second year of the challenge, which consists of patients 12 years and older engaging in 20 minutes of activity per day for 30 days. They not only get a tracker and app to record their progress, but they are paired with two accountability partners from the health care team to compete with and cheer them on. 

“This challenge has not only created a community between the care team and teens, but also a community among participants with the same diagnosis, forging friendships that are still around today,” says Krawzak. “Before this challenge, many teens didn’t know a single person with sickle cell disease. It has been a great opportunity.” This year’s challenge logged over 2.5 million steps between 11 kids and 9.5 million steps total including the accountability partners!  

Recently, Krawzak was selected as one of the 2023 Illinois 40 under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders, an honor attesting to her proven leadership and transformation in her field. 

In addition to her work at Advocate Children’s, Krawzak writes for the Courageous Parents Network Blog. As the first clinician blogger for this site, it was an honor she gladly accepted.  

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