Becky King is being nominated for this prestigious Award for her countless nursing accomplishments, leadership, mentorship, and service to her community. Becky’s career began in 1971 while still in high school. Becky began work at Villa Rica City Hospital with her mom in roles such as EKG technician, sterile processing tech, and a respiratory tech. After high school, Becky attended West Georgia College and obtained her associate nursing degree. Her first job out of nursing school was working in the emergency department as a charge nurse and covering as a house supervisor. This is where she met her husband, then a paramedic, of 40-plus years.

Becky changed locations and during this time became a Hospital Emergency Referral Exchange (HERE) Program Coordinator. In this role, she determined the need for and developed the concept of a patient referral program from outlying hospitals. She was responsible for the operations of the program as well as direct sales to the hospitals, physicians, and ambulance services in a 37-county service area. She was the Region V Advisory Council Representative for Charter Medical Hospital and served as Chair of the Public Information and Education Committee. Becky was also the physician relations coordinator and marketing assistant, orienting new physicians and connecting them with the administration.

From 1991 to 1998 Becky lived in Maryland and Indiana. During this time her responsibilities included Emergency Services Special Programs Coordinator, where she oversaw operations of the hospital’s two Mobile Intensive Care Units. She managed the critical care transport services and was an EMS Coordinator. She had oversight of QA for Three Rivers Ambulance Authority and responsibility for EMS Clinicals in the facility. She was a hospital representative to Fort Wayne Hospitals Consortium as well as responsible for an ED with 24,000 annual visits.

Becky returned to Georgia and has worked as a nurse leader at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center since 1999. Becky began her career at Wellstar as a staff nurse in the emergency department, becoming the ED manager as well as a house supervisor. She transitioned roles to develop the heart failure coach program. During the implementation of this program, she made a significant impact on improving the discharge planning process and follow-up of the CHF patient population. A significant decrease in readmission rates was noted and recognized across the system. Becky continued her education to obtain her BSN in 2013.

With her extensive knowledge of hospital operations, interprofessional relationships, and patient flow, Becky was an integral part of the transition team that provided input into state-of-the-art replacement hospital, processes, and protocols. She helped develop and lead the new outpatient infusion center and the clinical decision units when the new hospital opened in 2014. From 2016 to 2018, she developed the float team, and house supervisors and helped design and expand a new outpatient infusion center which provided expanded services to the community.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Becky hired and developed the rapid response team which provided additional clinical expertise to support the bedside nurses. Becky’s contributions over the last 24 years have made a positive impact on nursing and nursing leadership. She has won several Wellstar Nursing Excellence Awards for her leadership. She has been nominated for the AJC Nursing Excellence Awards as well as the March of Dimes Health Care Hero Award. Becky has been a part of the nursing leadership team helping the organization to achieve an “A” rating from leapfrog, Healthgrades top 10% performer, the Georgia Oglethorpe award, the first hospital in Georgia to receive the State Baldrige Award, and the first Wellstar hospital to receive Magnet designation.

Along with strong leadership and mentoring of up-and-coming leaders, Becky and her siblings established and funded the University of West Georgia Ila Mae Gunnel scholarship in honor of her mother. This scholarship is awarded to students from Carrol or Paulding counties in either nursing or respiratory therapy programs at the university. The scholarship has been awarded to several Wellstar employees and will continue to support and promote nursing and respiratory care careers. Becky’s contributions to nursing and the community will live on in each nurse, care partner, EMS, nurse leader, and all others that she helped develop and mentor throughout her illustrious career.

A former team member remembers Becky and states, “She was always referred to as “Miss Paulding” having great knowledge of the county history. Her support and dedication to her career was beyond most others. I consider Becky a “jack of all trades”. On a personal level, I met Becky when I interviewed for the director position of ER and outpatient services. I felt an instant connection with Becky. Because of her, I agreed to come to Paulding, which ended up being the right decision for me. I absolutely loved working side-by-side with Becky. She is truly one in a million.”

Another team member states, “When asked to say something about Becky, my first thoughts were, how can you put 15 years and multiple departments into a couple of sentences? We have worked “Old Paulding and New Paulding”, inpatient and outpatient together. From her down-home southern sayings to her encyclopedia brain of all that is Paulding, I’ve worked beside her trying to absorb as much as possible. We worked through the pandemic together and saw ourselves at our best and our worst and continued as a team. A few sayings that echo through my mind are “settle down sis” or “we know things”, making me smile. I will hold sharp images of pocketbooks, honey badgers, and pyramids with me. The training wheels are off, and she has taught me to go on my own, which has by far been the hardest part. Hope she enjoys answering the phone now (no staffing issues) and spends lots of time with those she loves so dearly. I find myself searching for just the right words, but when it comes right down to it, all I can say is Thank You.”

Finally, another of Becky’s peers stated, “Becky’s impact has been invaluable in my leadership and nursing journey. She has empowered me to seek opportunities for leadership, to understand people, and grow personally and professionally. She develops confidence in her team members and insists a nurse leader’s character is their most treasured attribute. Becky personifies the quote by Carolyn Jarvis, “The character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses”.”

We are honored to nominate such a deserving nurse leader and mentor for the DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award.

Note: This is Becky's 2nd DAISY Award!