Sweet Stories from Our Hive | Amy M. Beasley
As part of the “It Takes a Hive to Thrive” campaign, HPNF will feature stories that highlight how donor support empowers professionals to make a lasting impact on patients, families, and communities.
Amy M. Beasley, PhD, DNP, FNP-BC, CHPN®
When Amy Beasley graduated from the University of Alabama in 2008, she planned to become an emergency room nurse. But the death of her beloved grandmother led her to a career in hospice and palliative care.
“My grandmother was my best friend. She was not taken care of the way she should have been when she was dying,” Beasley said. “There were no conversations with us about what we should expect, and I knew patients and families deserved better.”
In 2012, while Beasley was working as an outpatient hospice nurse, her employer began offering support for nurses to become certified. Beasley joined the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association to access events and resources to prepare for the exam. She passed the test and became certified by the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) in 2013.
Beasley’s career continued to advance when she became a member of the HPCC Board of Directors in 2016. Beasley, who also has a degree in finance, was elected treasurer in 2017 and then served as president in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her passion to learn how others across the nation approach access to hospice and palliative care has been a constant theme throughout her career and became the focus of her research while she was working toward her PhD.
Beasley examined the report “America’s Care of Serious Illness: A State-by-State Report Card on Access to Palliative Care in Our Nation’s Hospitals,” published in 2019 by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), in which her home state of Alabama received a “D” grade. The report highlighted how the state’s healthcare delivery system was not meeting the needs of patients and families living with serious illness.
Beasley applied for and won an HPNF scholarship to attend the 2024 Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care in Phoenix, Arizona. There, she presented a poster on her research and the CAPC report.
In a full-circle moment while at the Annual Assembly, Beasley met one of the contributors to the report, which was instrumental to her work. “I discussed with him and other professionals about policy changes, research, and how other states are approaching access to hospice and palliative care,” Beasley said.
Empowered by that experience and inspired by the love of her grandmother, Beasley will continue to advocate for access to care to improve quality of life for her patients and their families.
Beasley is an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama and lives with her husband, Randy, and her three boys, Brayden, Tanner, and Jayce.
