OTC SPOTLIGHT: Bernadette Losh

By Steve Koehler

Bernadette Losh has one memory of her time as a student at Ozarks Technical Community that stands out from the rest, one that set the tone for her professional career.

It was the high standards set by Pam Carpenter, one of her nursing instructors when Losh attended in 1994.

“She was challenging but appropriate,” said Losh, who graduated from OTC’s licensed nursing program and went on to be director of clinics for Ozarks Community Hospital.

After earning her LPN degree at OTC, she went on to Evangel University where she earned a degree in business administration.

Losh, who graduated from Kickapoo High School in 1988, remembers the time when she was a nursing student and Carpenter found out Losh hadn’t done a proper patient assessment before the patient went in for surgery.

“I did not do a head-to-toe assessment and she pulled me in the hall and explained the severity of my mistake. I never made that mistake again. She’s serious. She’s a great lady,” Losh said.

Losh said the thing that’s stayed with her from her days at OTC is the discipline she learned.

“I really think it was the discipline that we had to have to get through the course. We had to stay on course and task-oriented,” she said.

As the director of clinics, Losh oversees operations at all the clinics on the north Springfield campus including several specialty clinics with a total staff of about 60 employees. She has sat on OTC’s allied health advisory board.

 “I would do it all over again in a heart beat. I’m very much an advocate of OTC,” she said.

Steve Koehler is coordinator of publications for Ozarks Technical Community College.