At Matchwell, we are proud to have wonderful nurses on our internal team. For Nurses Month, we asked our Director of Clinical & Quality, Bree Becker, MSN, FNP-C, RNC-MNN questions about being a nurse and her role now.
My first degree is in English. I originally wanted to be a high school teacher and a writer. But then my senior year of college, I had the opportunity to spend the summer in South Africa. While there, my group was involved in a motor vehicle accident. This required me to spend several days in the hospital, which was my first interaction with nurses. They helped me not only recover physically, but they provided much needed emotional comfort since I was so far from home.
Soon after graduating, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was not fulfilling my calling. I could no longer ignore that pull inside me that wanted to impact others the way those nurses impacted me. I decided to go back to school at Georgia State University to get my BSN, and I never looked back. I love being a nurse. To me it’s not just an occupation, but it’s who I am. I love learning and all the opportunities a career in nursing brings me. I recently completed my graduate studies as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
I’m the Director of Clinical and Quality. My job is to ensure we are sending safe and qualified clinicians into facilities. I created and now oversee the credentialing process for Matchwell. I also create clinical content for the Matchwell community including clinicians and our healthcare partners.
Previously, I worked as a Clinical Development Specialist for the largest women and infant hospital in the US. I’ve always worked in Women’s Health and found that empowering mothers to care for their infants was my passion. Specifically, I was involved with creating the first ever Critical Event Training for our department that focused on using simulation for emergency events for maternal and newborn patients. Around the same time, I worked with 2 other nurse leaders and restructured the competency program from a paper based method to a computer based method for our department.
I also started the first flipped classroom method for our nurse residency program. Instead of having new graduates come to class and listen to hours of lectures, I lead a group of clinical educators to restructure our teaching methodology. We created computer based modules for the new nurses to study prior to their weekly classes. During class time we spent the next 8 hours completing case studies and practical application, leading to more competent and confident nurses entering their first nursing position at our facility. I look back on that time and am really proud that these programs are still active today and being led by an amazing team of nurse educators. Leaving that organization was hard but it’s a great feeling knowing my fingerprints are all over an organization and department that I cared for so much.
The complexity of patient care prepares you for so many things in the business world. Many think nursing is black and white but like most things in life, there is a lot of gray too. Carrying out orders is only a small part of what nurses do. I think the biggest thing I gleaned from nursing and have carried with me to a technology company is the ability to quickly evolve my thinking. Almost every shift I started out with a plan but 30 minutes into my shift I had to adjust that plan because patient care is fluid. Guess what? The start-up world is fluid as well. A well thought out plan doesn’t mean you don’t evolve in the moment and adjust. I also learned to pay attention to the details even while moving at a fast pace. I am not saying I am an expert in these areas but those are two traits I lean on daily at Matchwell.