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Hickory man works to advance nursing
Robert C. Reed
Eddie Beard, vice president of patient services at Catawba Valley Medical Center, stands outside the hospital.
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Published: August 30, 2009
HICKORY - As a 15-year-old orderly at a Rutherford County hospital, Eddie Beard was impressed by the highly structured, nearly formalized interactions among nurses in crisp, white uniforms and doctors in immaculate lab coats.
"It was almost like a dance," said Beard, now the 46-year-old senior vice president of patient services at Catawba Valley Medical Center.
"I fell in love with the hospital setting and felt honored to be even a small part of it."
Beard said much has changed in hospitals and in the nursing profession during the last 31 years, but his love for both has only grown.
"I can't think of anything else in the world that I'd rather be doing," he said.
"I'm one of those fortunate people who got it right from the get-go."
A Forest City native, Beard moved to Hickory in 1981 to pursue a nursing degree at Lenoir-Rhyne College. He worked his way through Lenoir-Rhyne and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he received a master's degree in nursing in 1990.
During those years, Beard worked at Frye Regional Medical Center as a staff nurse and nurse manager and in critical care at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
While pursuing his master's degree, Beard asked Margery Adams, then vice president of patient services at Catawba Valley Medical Center, to be his preceptor for graduate school residency. Adams accepted.
The arrangement proved to be beneficial for both.
"We spent a semester working together, and Margery took me under her wing," Beard said.
Adams hired Beard as associate vice president of patient services, and spent the next couple of years preparing him to step into her job upon her retirement.
Adams, who had spent two decades building the hospital's nursing staff, wanted to see her work continued.
"I was impressed with Eddie from the start," Adams said. "The whole time we worked together he seemed to understand my approach to nursing: You look after your nurses so they can look after the patients. Eddie understood that."
Twenty years after joining Catawba Valley Medical Center, Beard still believes one of the best ways to ensure excellent patient care is to promote professionalism among nurses.
"Helping nurses become more professional is one of the joys of my career," Beard said. "Better nurses mean better patient care."
For that reason, Beard considers Catawba Valley Medical Center's accreditation as a Magnet facility as a highlight of his career thus far.
In 2001, the medical center became the 32nd U.S. hospital to achieve Magnet designation, an international honor that recognizes excellence in nursing.
"I wish I could say that I put a lot of time and effort into preparing us for accreditation, but the truth is I read the criteria and realized that we did nearly all that stuff already," Beard said.
"That was our professional environment."
Catawba Valley Medical Center, which has about 350 registered nurses, has maintained its Magnet status for eight years.
"To me, Magnet is about professionalizing nursing," Beard said.
"Is Magnet worth it? It's a pain, but the impact of the work we're doing today will be seen by our children and grandchildren. It absolutely is worth the effort."
For several years, Beard has been an appraiser for the Commission on Magnet Programs, appraising other hospitals that are applying for Magnet certification.
Beard said the activity offers him a chance to see what is going on at some of the best hospitals in the world. It also helps feed his passion for travel. Beard has visited medical centers throughout the United States, and last year got to travel to Australia. There's a chance he'll visit Singapore in the near future.
Beard said the road will likely always lead back to Catawba Valley Medical Center.
"I really do love this place," he said.
"People ask me if I would leave and I ask them why I would want to trade the excellence of this hospital, the team of people I work with and the relationships I have here for anything else.
"My hope is to do this at least another 20 years."
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