HAI Fast Forward Series: Responding to Increased Device-Associated Infection Rates During a Pandemic

Rebecca (Becca) Bartles is the Executive Director of Infectious Disease Management and Prevention for Providence. Becca has practiced Infection Prevention for the last 17 years in a variety of healthcare settings and has numerous publications focused on infection prevention staffing and endoscope safety. She received both her BS in Public Health, Health Education and her MPH in Epidemiology from East TN State University. She completed her Doctorate in Public Health in 2021 with a dissertation topic of “Assessing efficacy of an evidence-based Clostridiodes difficile screening tool using electronic medical record data”. Becca also teaches courses at the University of Providence for a Masters in Infection Prevention degree program that she founded in 2016. She has been CIC certified since 2008 and is an APIC fellow. Most notably, though, Becca is the mother of four beautiful daughters, ages 7-23.

Rebecca (Bex) Clarkson is an Infection Preventionist with Providence Health System. She is a Registered Nurse by background and has practiced since 2009 in multiple settings across the hospital including Emergency Medicine, Cardiac, Oncology, Acute Observation and Charge Nurse. Her non-acute experience includes work in home infusion, business consultation, envenomation and animal educational presentations, and television set compliance officer. Bex received her MSN with an emphasis in Nursing Education with an intent to teach Nursing School when she fell into Infection Prevention in 2015 and realized that this is where she belongs. She has a passion for patient safety and is determined to prevent patient harm. Bex lives in Sunny Southern California with her husband and their small zoo of animals when she is not travelling the world or visiting her property in the jungles of Costa Rica.