Rachel Posey Nfodjo, D.O., specializes in critical care in the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) at Oklahoma Heart Institute (OHI). Her professional areas of interest include ECMO and ultrasound.

Dr. Posey’s dreams of becoming a doctor began when she was a child, right before drifting to sleep. She said, “My mother is an emergency medicine physician and so when my sisters and I were young, we used to prefer her crazy work adventures over standard bedtime stories. These ‘broken bone’ stories as we called them, kept me interested and motivated to pursue medicine as I grew up.”

Having on-the-job perspective from her mother would later help Dr. Posey choose a career path. She said, “I saw the great work-life balance that my mother was able to have in emergency medicine and really enjoyed the variety of patients and procedures that EM allows. However, during residency I wanted to follow my sickest patients throughout their hospital stay, which is why I completed a fellowship in critical care medicine.”

Now, as Dr. Posey works to get patients back to a healthy state and out of critical care, she often finds herself meeting not only the patient but their family too. “Many emergency room patients and all ICU patients are the sickest in the hospital. Often times, there are problems with many different organ systems, and it doesn’t take long for patients and their families to get overwhelmed with information and consults. One of my passions is weaving information together from different specialists and helping the patients understand everything we are doing and why,” she said.

Outside of work, Dr. Posey enjoys soccer, dance classes, hiking, traveling, reading and spending time with her husband.