Oakstone CME is excited to celebrate healthcare professionals like you this month! Each week we will be spotlighting one of our own contributors so you can get to know the people behind the content.

Medicine’s pull on Melinda (Lindy) Deye, BSN, MSN, NP-C, Lead Nurse Planner for Oakstone, started at a young age – about 10 years old. Her mother had surgery and spoke so highly of the nurses who took care of her that Lindy wanted to be that person for others, and that’s exactly who she became.

But after spending 30 years as a nurse, she decided she had more to give and more gifts to offer. So, she took her career to the next level.

Now, 14 years later, this nurse practitioner, who specializes in family medicine, isn’t slowing down any time soon..

“What I enjoy about my specialty is I get to work with multi-generations of families. I get to establish relationships with patients that I see on an ongoing basis at church and in the community,” says Lindy. “I really enjoy being able to provide that care to people throughout their lifetime.”

Speaking of a large family, between she and her husband, they have eight children and 12 grandchildren that keep them busy. So, it would appear family medicine is the perfect specialty for her. Plus, according to Lindy, it allows her to work in the clinic and the ER. “I get the best of all worlds,” she explains.

In fact, Lindy spends two-thirds of her time in the ER because she loves the adrenaline rush, the never knowing what’s coming next, the challenge of learning new things and helping people during some of the worst times of their lives.

“It’s always a challenge, and I’m always learning,” says Lindy.

Guess that’s why if Lindy had to pick another career the most natural one for her would be teaching. When she was a nurse Lindy was a certified Lamaze instructor and taught it for 15 years. She also was an advanced cardiovascular life support and basic life support instructor for years, only recently giving it up due to time constraints.

No one’s surprised that Lindy had to give up some of her teaching commitments due to the time constraints of her profession. But medicine isn’t the only thing that keeps her busy! In her own words, “I’m a very busy girl and I have a lot of hobbies!”

And when she says a lot, she’s not joking. Here’s a few of them: quilting (she has her own longarm quilting business), biking, baking, cross stitching, playing the violin, taking cello lessons via Zoom, being the director of music at her church and, of course, spending as much time as she can with her children and grandchildren.

Oh, and one more thing to add to that list, is being the Lead Nurse Planner for Oakstone CME. Lindy got involved in CME/medical education thanks to knowing the Chief Medical Officer for Oakstone Publishing – her husband Donald Deye, MD, FACP.

“Don has worked with Oakstone for a long time, and I listened to the education they produced. So, when they wanted to expand their education to PAs and NPs and needed someone to review [the material] to see if it was appropriate for what was happening in practice, I was a good fit,” explains Lindy. “I was practicing full time in the ER and the clinic, too. It’s a win-win for me, because I get to review the articles and then apply them to my clinical practice.”

“Prior to COVID-19, Don and I would go to medical conferences together,” says Lindy. “The nice part about both of us being in medicine and married is we go to the American College of Physicians annual meeting together, and we try to do Mayo Clinical Reviews every year. It’s fun to go and stay somewhere and learn all the greatest up-to-date things and interact with people on a wider basis.”

And this power couple didn’t let the pandemic stop them. This year they did the Mayo Clinical Reviews in the comfort of their own living room and brought their colleagues with them via the TV.

Lindy also likes to pass the time in her car, whether alone or with Don, listening to CME materials. “I can then immediately apply it to my practice. It makes you feel like you’re doing the latest and the greatest,” explains Lindy. “That makes earning CMEs fun when you can apply it to your everyday practice and taking care of your patients.”

“I think that medicine can be superficial sometimes,” she says. “They need to not be afraid to dig and really look for things. Take care of the person as a whole and not just in the medical aspects, but all aspects: physical, emotional and spiritual.”