Rebekah Thacker
Associate CNO/Oncology Nursing Director
Associate Chief Clinical Informatics Officer
Executive Director of Clinical Programs IDHI
Donna was nominated by Heather Alverson.
Rebekah is our Director of Nursing Research, Excellence and Magnet Programs and has had a distinguished career in a number of roles at UAMS. She began her UAMS career in the NICU and followed the Clinical Ladder that she has such passion for to become a Clinical Specialist in the NICU. Along the way she has grown personally and professionally, mentored countless others, led practice changes in her specialty and beyond, and ultimately led UAMS to Magnet Designation.
Rebekah has been a Clinical Ladder role model, beginning her career with a BSN and completing her masters degree while still a clinical nurse in the NICU. She obtained nurse specialty certification in Neonatal Intensive Care while practicing as a clinical nurse. She is currently completing her PhD program in Nursing at UAMS, exploring as her research topic issues that lead to health care disparities. She has served as a clinical nurse, clinical nurse specialist, and now a director of nursing. She mentored numerous nurses in the Women and Infants Service Line, encouraging them to become certified and pursue higher education degrees.
Rebekah has received numerous awards, including the 40 under 40 Nurse Leader award, and has been named as a Great 100 Nurse for Arkansas. Most recently she stood on the stage as the nurse leader responsible for tracking, enabling, and documenting our Magnet journey — and accepted that award beside me, Dr. Krause and Mary Helen.
I know you’ve heard me say this before, but this is truly another one of those “full circle” moments. Mary Helen hired me almost 18 years ago to begin our Magnet journey, and it took Rebekah and her commitment and dedication to this cause to bring us to the finish line last November.
In her role as Director of the Center for Nursing Excellence Rebekah encourages nurses every month at our Inpatient and Ambulatory meetings to advocate for every aspect of all our quality metrics. She facilitates the development of connections, discussing issues, and then working together to research, innovate, and find solutions to anything preventing us from providing the best care to our patients and their families.
One of the primary ways we see Rebekah encourage development of nurses across UAMS is through our Clinical Ladder for RN IVs and RN Vs. She helped revise the application and renewal process to increase the specificity and scope of documentation required to earn and maintain RN IV and V designation, and we now have two paths: Administration and Clinical Expert. Both paths require nurses across UAMS to engage and participate in education, training, organization, and management on their unit level, as well as share across all of UAMS. Rebekah reviews every portfolio submitted, and nurses share their work at inpatient and ambulatory council meetings. She is one of the primary drivers behind UAMS being the amazing, supportive place it is for nurses to work, thrive and succeed.