Drawn to a Duke career after serving her country: Misty's story

When Misty Guerrero, application analyst II with Duke Health Technology Solutions, first moved to North Carolina while serving in the United States Marine Corps, she never anticipated staying here after completing her service. But after meeting her husband and getting to know the area a bit, they made the collective decision to stay.  

Seeking to transition into a civilian career, Misty began taking courses at Durham Technical Community College, and later began nursing school at the Watts School of Nursing. During her clinical rotations at Duke University Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital, Misty decided that Duke Health was where she wanted to start her career. 

“It was an amazing place to work. Everybody was willing to help. You’d walk down the hallway and people knew each other’s names and would say ‘Hey, how’s your kid?’ and it was just weird to me,” said Misty. “In this big place, people cared enough to learn about other folks working there. It just stood out to me that this was the place I wanted to be.”  

After graduating from nursing school, Misty began her career as a new graduate nurse in the emergency department at Duke Regional Hospital in May 2006.  

Misty quickly grew as a new graduate nurse and eventually progressed to a clinical team lead position in October 2010.  In her new role, Misty had the opportunity to lead several different initiatives, including billing reviews and opening a clinical decision unit. She also took advantage of opportunities to grow her skillset through both professional classes and the support of her manager, Mitch Babb. 

“He was always trying to make sure that you had the tools to do the best that you could in the role you were in,” said Misty. “I really appreciated that.” 

It was in this role, as a clinical team lead, that Misty uncovered a new interest in health care — the technological piece. Misty was met with support from her manager to pursue this interest. 

“I got really interested in Wellsoft, which was our electronic medical record before we moved over to Epic, and I got to work on a lot of cool things with that,” said Misty. 

When Duke Regional Hospital began to transition to the Epic electronic health record — shortly after Duke Health became the first provider in the greater Triangle area to begin implementing it — Misty’s manager suggested that she play a role in the transition, given her nursing experience and interest in the technological side of health care. 

Throughout the transition to Epic, technological leaders across Duke Health leaned on Misty and her fellow emergency department team members for their clinical expertise and experience to determine the best way to operate the new system and its workflows, not only at Duke Regional Hospital but across the health system. 

“I was really appreciative that they sought out the folks who do the work to provide the input into it,” said Misty. “To be one of the first hospitals to go live with it, it was really exciting.” 

As Duke Regional Hospital made the switch, Misty helped her fellow team members work through questions and concerns with the implementation and new processes. From setting up a room on the night of the integration with snacks and having Superman capes to remind team members of the great work they do, to consistent information sessions for team members who needed additional support afterwards, Misty took the lead and helped ensure a smooth transition for Duke Regional Hospital’s emergency department.