Meet Tiffany Beedy, a nurse practitioner at the Mercy Health – Springfield Heart House. She has been with our ministry for the last 11 years.
“I decided very early in my life I wanted to be a doctor,” Tiffany shares. “My brother gave me my first stethoscope for my 11th birthday and I still have it on my desk.”
At the age of 16, Tiffany had her oldest son and her plan changed a bit. She still wanted to take care of people though and at first wanted to be an OB nurse, because she had received great care throughout her pregnancy.
“But God did not put me in OB for my clinicals, he put me in intensive care unit (ICU),” Tiffany says. “My first CODE BLUE had me hooked on the acute care of ICU.”
After 10 years of nursing, Tiffany went back to school and became a family nurse practitioner. Now, at the Springfield Heart House, she has helped develop a heart failure center program.
“Nurses are known to be problem solvers,” she shares. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our nurses have been stretched to think so far outside the box.”
Tiffany continues, “catching something from a patient was not necessarily a fear of mine, but the fear of the unknown and giving it to my elderly mother, who had to have an aortic valve replacement during COVID-19, made me very anxious. As a nurse practitioner, I filled many roles in the initial onslaught of the pandemic, from answering phones to seeing patients via televisit, but the diversity our health care has developed and has amazed me. I believe we are stronger than ever.”
Tiffany shares that the most rewarding aspect of her work is helping people achieve their health goals.
“Goals are not always to get better or to overcome a disease. Sometimes it is helping people understand what is going on and helping them work through their current stage,” she says. “Whether the help be a friendly smile, a reality check, resources to afford medications, transportation to their office visits or helping them find the right person to address their needs.”
We’re so grateful for Tiffany and our other nurses who are dedicated to caring for patients at Mercy Health, where nurses mean the world!
Read more stories about our incredible nurses.
Also, learn more about the heart and vascular services we offer at Mercy Health.
