Traci Beebe

I attribute my success to determination, hard work, and a commitment to never giving up, while continuously pushing forward with passion for what I do and treating others with kindness and respect.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is to surround myself with a strong, positive support team, lead by example, and never be intimidated by others—always stand tall and be proud of who I am and the work I do.

That's the one wonderful thing about being a nurse - if you just keep saying yes, opportunities keep coming your way. I've had all kinds of varied opportunities throughout my career. I started in the ICU, then did transplant work with both heart and abdominal cases, moved into leadership roles quickly, worked in house supervision and hospital operations, and then did critical care flight. Each time I said yes to an opportunity, it opened new doors. One of my most fun experiences was handling a complex exposure situation at Tulane University Hospital where I reached out to 325 patients and families, managed the crisis, and we were able to prevent a class action lawsuit while keeping everyone safe. That experience changed my career trajectory and led me into risk management and eventually to giving reports to boards, which is how I ended up in the larger organizational and system-level leadership work I do now.

Right now, the biggest challenge is really about the choices that Kaiser Permanente makes around staffing in our union organization. The relationships with the unions used to be much more of a partnering relationship, but since I came back in 2023 into this role, we've had two of the largest healthcare work stoppages or strikes. I am our subject matter expert - I'm the one, I'm the architect who designs how we navigate through this at my local level. This past year, I spent the first 40 days of the year in a work stoppage that, for us in Northern California, related to all of our APP staff - our PAs, our nurse practitioners, our certified nurse midwives, our rehabilitation staff, so non-physician provider staff. That really created a very unique challenge for how do you function in that environment, and how do you leverage your physicians and ensure that your nursing staff and your other licensed providers are working at the highest level to fill in the gaps. We were able to do both of those things without any patient outcome changes and without any safety issues or risk events. You would think it would be AI, you would think it would be the algorithm changes, you would think it would be billing, all of those things, but for me, the people are still, right now, the biggest opportunity to ensure the safety and the future of our healthcare system.

The values most important to me in both my work and personal life are staying eager to learn, remaining open to new ideas, committing to continuous education, and always being willing to help others in need.