Melissa Tucker

Experience

• 

  Keystone Bluffs Assisted Living

  Sept 2008 - Sept 2012

  Certified Nursing Assistant

  Provided safe, quality care to 19-25 residents each shift. Assisted residents with activities of daily living. Trained newly hired patient care attendants and certified nursing assistants on facility policies, procedures, and individual patient cares.

• 

  St. Luke's Hospital Duluth MN

  Jun 2012 - Jul 2012

  Cardiology Summer Nurse Intern

  Provided 200 hours of safe nursing care to 4-5 preoperative and postoperative cardiac patients per shift, including those with procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafts, angiograms, cardioversions, ablations, and pacemaker insertions. Assisted with telemetry monitoring for all patients. *Only student intern selected from The College of St. Scholastica in 2012.

• 

  Christ Lutheran Church

  Sept 2012 - Aug 2013

  Youth Ministry Coordinator
• 

  The College of St. Scholastica

  Sept 2012 - May 2013

  Nursing Skills Lab Teaching Assistant

  Provided assistance to the Nursing Skills Lab Coordinator for classes and events that utilized the nursing skills lab. Served as a resource to traditional undergraduate and post-baccalaureate nursing students learning new nursing physical assessment and clinical kinesthetic skills. Assisted with clinical skill competency check-offs.

• 

  Private Hospice Home Care

  May 2013 - Jul 2013

  Personal Care Attendant
• 

  St. Luke's Duluth, MN

  Aug 2013 - Apr 2014

  Registered Nurse

  Hospice/OncologyDelivered quality holistic and compassionate end-of-life care to hospice patients and families through the use of excellent pain management techniques and other nursing comfort measures. Provided end-of-life education for patients and families. Provided care for the oncology patient population, and successfully completed Cancer Basics course through the Oncology Nursing Society.

• 

  Essentia Health

  May 2014 - now

  ·Serves as the quality, compliance, and education manager for hospice home care covering three service areas (Duluth, Grand Rapids, and Virginia, MN) and Solvay Hospice House in Duluth, MN.· Assists in the development of the department-wide, data-driven hospice QAPI program, monitoring key metrics for the department.· Leads quarterly QAPI committee meetings.· Responsible for data tracking and monitoring from all patient safety event reports including medication errors, patient falls, CAUTI's, Covid-19 infections, and other safety events.· Monitors quality measures and trends from the Hospice Quality Reporting Program including the HIS, CAHPS survey, HVLDL and HCI.· Leads all performance improvement projects, reporting to the management team and hospice Governing Body on at least a quarterly basis.· Authors and updates the organizational annual QAPI plan.· Leads the Quality Connections program through the National Hospice Palliative Care Organization for the organization.· Oversees the tasks of the Hospice Nursing Practice Council.· Authors, reviews, and revises all hospice and palliative care policies and standard work documents.· Identifies potential areas of compliance vulnerability and risk; develops and implements corrective actions plans for resolution of problematic issues.· Serves on the Minnesota Network of Hospice and Palliative Care Technical Assistance Team.· Manages state and Joint Commission survey readiness actions plans.· Manages competency completion of all hospice staff.· Performs weekly collaboration with the Hospice Medical Director, nurse manager, operations team, and hospice leadership team.· Ensures ongoing education of department staff.· Assists with educational onboarding of new department staff.· Maintains knowledge of all hospice federal regulations including the hospice Conditions of Participation and Conditions of Payment and national hospice standards of practice. Show less ·Served as a float nurse (and charge RN), covering hospice home care and Solvay Hospice House routine home care, respite, and general inpatient visits for case managers.· Triaged hospice calls and made immediate need home visits on weekends.· Worked with the hospice intake team—writing referral assessments, conducting informational hospice visits with inpatient patients and family members, and coordinating hospice admissions.· Admitted patients to hospice home care.· Became efficient at utilizing the Epic Remote Client electronic health record.· Participated in organizing, coordinating, and presenting at three 8-hour hospice nursing skills days.· Prepared for and presented at multiple local nursing facility hospice in-services for facility staff, offering continuing education credit after all presentations.· Developed a poster on Skin Failure at End of Life for Essentia Health Nursing Professional Development Day 2022.· Assisted with Joint Commission survey preparation including conducing chart audits, remodeling Epic nursing care plans, organizing employee files and ensuring 100% competency compliance for all hospice employees, and organizing the entire clean supply room and removing expired supplies and hand sanitizers throughout the hospice offices. Show less General SurgeryApplied and demonstrated knowledge of the delivery of professional nursing care, including all aspects of practice, as defined by the MN Board of Nursing. Managed and coordinated information between patient, family and healthcare team members; provides for education of patient’s families and staff, and evaluated outcomes. *Specially trained in caring for bariatric surgical and trauma surgical patient populations.*Trained and worked as a Charge RN.*Trained and worked as a newly hired RN preceptor and nursing capstone preceptor for nursing students in their last semester.*Certified Medical Surgical RN*Served as member in Nursing Unit-Based Practice Council group that met bi-monthly to discuss evidence-based improvement practices for general surgery unit. During the meetings group collaborated with quality improvement and infection prevention departments. Show less

  • RN Hospice Compliance, Quality and Education Program Manager

    Nov 2022 - now

  • Registered Nurse

    Jan 2022 - Nov 2022

  • Charge Nurse

    Jun 2019 - Jan 2022

  • Registered Nurse

    May 2014 - Jan 2022
• 

  Young Living Essential Oils

  Dec 2023 - now

  Brand Partner