Beebe names two clinical nurse educators to support nursing team

Patient Care Services at Beebe Medical Center announces another initiative in Beebe’s efforts to continually improve the quality and safety of the care it provides for patients. Patient Care Services has created the clinical nurse educator role that is being introduced into different patient units throughout the hospital, starting with Women’s Health and Critical Care.

The clinical nurse educators will work at the bedside with nursing staff members to coach, mentor and educate them on the latest evidenced-based practices as those practices become recognized within the nation’s healthcare community, so patients receive the highest level of quality care. In addition, the educators will develop strong partnerships with nurse managers to ensure the orientation of new staff, competencies and future educational planning strategies are streamlined, coordinated and facilitated for all staff in those service areas.

Theresa Houston, RN, BSN, CCRN, is the new clinical nurse educator in the Critical Care area and Jacqueline Cooke, RN, MSN, is the new clinical nurse educator in the Women’s Health area.

Houston most recently worked as an accreditation and infection specialist in infection prevention at Beebe Medical Center. Previously, she worked in the Intensive Care Unit and in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit for three years. She has 20 years of experience as a nurse, 18 of which were in critical care. She is certified in critical care and currently completing a master’s degree in nursing education at Wilmington University. While at Beebe Medical Center, Houston has been one of the leaders on a quality initiative to reduce infections from the use of urinary catheters.

As a result of this initiative, catheter-associated urinary tract infections have been greatly reduced. These efforts have been recognized and Houston, together with quality initiative team members Donna Anderson, RN, CIC, and Denise Larson, RN, MSN, will be presenting information on this initiative in June at the annual international conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. This annual conference draws more than 2,500 clinicians from around the world who focus on preventing infections.

Cooke is a newcomer to Beebe Medical Center. She has spent 18 years in various settings in the field of women’s health including hospitals, private practice, and teaching undergraduate and graduate nursing courses at the University of Delaware. She has bachelor's degrees in business and nursing from the University of Delaware and a graduate degree from Allegheny University (Hahnemann University) as a women’s health nurse practitioner.

For more information about Beebe Medical Center, go to www.beebemed.org.