Rebecca Bahrman, Senior Clinical LPN at UP Health System — Lakewood Family Medicine in Harvey.

What is your official title?
Senior Clinical LPN at UP Health System — Lakewood.

What was your inspiration for getting into healthcare?
I want to prevent disease before it starts and help keep our community healthy.

What’s a typical day like for you? What is it like working in this field?
A typical day at the clinic starts at 7:00 AM. First, we open up the lab drawing station and then begin rooming patients for our providers in the clinic. When we room patients, we go over all their medications, vitals, various screenings, as well as in house labs. Nurses also do medication refills, immunizations, create letters, perform ear flushes, and assist the providers with all outpatient procedures completed in our office.

With the recent increase in COVID-19 cases, we have been taking a lot of phone calls in the office and helping to direct appropriate care for patients, along with our normal triage phone calls.

How long have you been employed here? Have you always been in the same position?
I’ve been with UPHS — Marquette for 5 years now. I started in the float pool as a Medical Assistant when attending NMU for my LPN. After I passed my boards, I stayed in the float pool as an LPN, until I fell in love with family medicine. Since then, I have been at UP Health System Family Medicine – Lakewood as a clinical nurse. I recently became a Senior Clinical LPN at Lakewood.

What are some of the big changes you have experienced in this position?
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught our staff to be creative in terms of bringing quality healthcare to our patients. For example, we’ve created a new system of scheduling and rooming our patients to keep staff and patients safe. We’ve also implemented virtual appointments when appropriate and a pre-screening process prior to appointments.

What are some of your interests outside of work? What is your favorite local gem?
When I’m not working at Lakewood, I work two days a week at the COVID-19 Testing Center, which I truly enjoy. I also volunteer with the Skandia Volunteer EMS as an EMT. I love to educate others and meet new people.

Outside of work, I am pursuing my BSN-RN from NMU. I am one semester away from graduating; I’m so excited to complete the program!

Lastly, I work on my family’s dairy farm in Skandia. We milk 30 head of cows, twice daily. I love to spend time with the cows, as well as providing quality milk to our community with Jilbert Dairy.

What do you enjoy most about working at UPHS – Lakewood?
I love working alongside my coworkers — they are my heroes!