Rangineh Bassir
May 10, 2022
National Nurses Week is celebrated from May 6 to May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale.
Rangineh Bassir grew up in Iran and attended Berkeley City College to study computer science. After two years, she changed her major to nursing and decided to stay in the United States. Her first position was as a cardiac nurse at UC San Francisco, where she assisted with heart and lung transplants. She later returned to UCSF as a student to earn a master’s degree and become a nurse practitioner. Outside of work, Bassir likes hiking in the Bay area, cooking, traveling, and socializing with friends and family. In January, Bassir joined Berkeley Lab as Health Services Clinical Manager, partly because she is inspired by the Lab’s mission to solve the most pressing and profound scientific problems facing mankind.
What are your responsibilities as Health Services Clinical Manager?
I take care of anything patient care-related. I supervise four nurses, medical assistants, and occupational therapists and I am the point of contact for key decision-makers. I plan for the clinic and how we make ourselves ready. I still see patients too. It’s not my main job but I like engaging with patients, discussing health plans with them, and diagnosing. It’s also a skill I would not like to lose.
Do you have a memorable moment as a nurse?
I was doing a rotation as a nursing student at Stanford Medical Center. It was an emergency situation and all these doctors and nurses were performing this complex procedure on this patient. The patient was awake and everyone was focused on delivering the procedure. I remembered there was a person there. I lifted the drape, told her I was there for her, and kept reassuring her. I asked her to breathe with me. She started breathing normally and started crying and was really grateful. I remember the person and not only the science part of it.
You started in January in the midst of the latest COVID surge. What was that like?
I like to watch and assess before I jump in and start doing things. I arrived here and was trying to learn where things are and who the people were. I arrived at the peak of the surge and ended up diving in at the end of my first week.