Amy Schlachtenhaufen, MSN, RN

Caritas Coach®
WCSI CCEP® Faculty
Assistant Professor of Nursing, Luther College
Decorah, IA
  Caritas Colleague


Amy Schlachtenhaufen has always had a passion to help people, so nursing seemed like a great match. She discovered the impact a nurse makes, when she went on a mission trip with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and Mercy Ships to England for three months and then on to Ghana and Togo for two months. She was able to volunteer as crew on the Mercy Ship, Anastasis. There she was able to observe and learn that compassion and care are the cornerstones of healing. This exposure to global health and her first glimpse of how caring transforms patients outcomes, made her sure that nursing was her calling.

Amy graduated from Denver School of Nursing in 2011 and worked at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colorado. There she was blessed with amazing colleagues and coworkers who helped her build her clinical nursing knowledge and confidence all while exploring how to live out her heart’s passion. Over the years, Amy spent time working in Denver area hospitals as a nurse informaticist, educator and other IT clinical support roles.

In 2018, Amy and her family moved across the country to Decorah, IA for her to take a new position at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. There she was formally exposed to Caring Science. She found kindred spirits in many of her colleagues who are fellow Caritas Coaches®. She embraced Caritas with all of her heart and knew she was finally home in the intentional presence of being. She was blessed with the opportunity to attend a Caritas Coach program and later graduated in the fall of 2021. Throughout her time at Gundersen she helped bring an innovative spirit and inquisitive nature to nursing communication and technology. She continues to stay connected to Gundersen Health System through her work in the Gundersen Medical Foundation on the Philanthropy Committee.

As Amy integrated Caring Science into more of her work, it became evident that this was part of her being and now part of how she viewed the world. After the Caritas Coach program her desire to learn and dig deeper grew and she completed her Masters in Nursing Education. She is currently working as Assistant Professor of Nursing for Luther College and keeps busy in the community by being on the board of Arthaus, a local nonprofit connecting people through creativity.