Debra Schoonbaert received her diploma of nursing in 1983. She went directly into an intensive care training program at a large teaching hospital in Springfield, Illinois. For the next 16 years, Debra worked in all areas of medical, surgical, cardiovascular, and neurologic intensive care at hospitals around the country. She has been a certified critical care nurse since 1990 and a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

While working at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, California, Debra represented the critical care nurses on the bioethics and quality assurance committees. Debra received two regional service improvement awards from Kaiser Northern California. She developed a weight-based heparin protocol for patients with acute myocardial infarctions and another for the assessment and treatment of alcohol withdrawal in patients following major surgery that became the model for treatment throughout the system.

Debra recently graduated with honors from the University of Phoenix earning her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International honor society for nursing.

Debra began her career with UC Davis Medical Center in 2003 working between the cardiac cath lab and the cardiac electrophysiology lab. In 2006, she transferred to the GI procedure clinic in Folsom. Debra brings extensive knowledge and experience with vascular patients to the Vascular Center Clinic where she will be assisting with the treatment of patients undergoing procedures.