My name is Monica Horta Bettencourt, an Operating Room Nurse based in the Lisbon District, now applying the discipline of high-stakes OR work to my pivot into DevOps through full-time technical study.
I’ve been surrounded by technology since childhood, thanks to my relatives’ interests and occupations. While working in healthcare, I followed the development of information technology systems in the field, and began noticing the challenges in usability and interoperability between different software products.
Then a Raspberry Pi entered the scene. I found that these small devices were transmitting live data from medical equipment to a newly implemented application in the OR.
This piqued my interest, and I became deeply curious about software integration and APIs as a solution to many healthcare IT systems that don’t communicate with each other.
While searching and attending several courses, I learned about the software development life cycle, including deployment and automation. In that moment I realized that I’d found what I was looking for.
As I thrive on solving problems and streamlining processes, I knew this was the right field to invest in. I learn by experimenting and building in my home lab, troubleshooting issues, breaking things, to then rebuild them in a better way.
After a few hardware experiments and my own laptop repair, I’m currently focused on Linux system administration, building a solid foundation for the technical skills required of a DevOps professional, to then progress towards automation, containers and orchestration, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and cloud platforms.
Here I share what I’m learning and the processes involved. I also write about productivity and efficiency: note-taking, learning strategies, and deep work practices that support dedicated learning.
I developed consistent study habits while still working a rotating shift schedule. It took some trial and error, but I eventually realized what worked during my 3-month experiment waking at 04:30h to study before morning shifts in the OR.
About This Website
Building this website with the Hugo framework was my first project. It was both challenging and rewarding, since I had never worked on something like this before.
You can find the source code of this website at github.com/monicahbettencourt/blog