Nurses 2021

Celebrating National Nurses Week 2021

| SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

JUDGING

TOP 10

THE

2

T

hree independent judges: Julie Kolker and Chrysten Dohrmann from North Iowa Area Community College, and Angie Anstine from MercyOne North Iowa, profiled below, reviewed all of the nominees and chose the 10 winners revealed within this section. Read about each winner within this section.

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urses are the heart and soul of hospitals, clinics, schools, residential facilities, in-home care, and much more. Nurses educate, console, relate, comfort and endear themselves to patients and families. Nursing is a demanding profession that requires extraordinary skill and compassion.

That rings true even more in this era of COVID-19, where nurses are on the front line of a worldwide pandemic.

These tireless professionals deserve every bit of recognition they will receive during National Nurses Week, which kicked off this week. Locally, the Globe Gazette took part in honoring the area’s own nurses with a contest, section and awards event.

“NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE” IS PUBLISHED

BY THE GLOBE GAZETTE (NORTH IOWA MEDIA GROUP)

Jerry Smith/Special Projects Editor – jerry.smith@globegazette.com Olivia Stalker/ Advertising Coordinator – olivia.stalker@globegazette.com Greg Wilderman/Circulation Director – greg.wilderman@globegazette.com Jaci Smith/Regional Editor – jaci.smith@globegazette.com Janet Johnson/Publisher – janet.johnson@globegazette.com Advertising Department: 1-800-421-0546 – advertising@globegazette.com Circulation Department: 1-800-433-0560 – getmyglobe@globegazette.com

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MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center ABCM Corporation Community Health Center Country Meadows Place North Iowa Area Community College

JULIE KOLKER Julie has been an Associate Degree Nursing Instructor at North Iowa Area Community College for past 17 years, working closely with the Nursing IV students. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Family Services from Iowa State University, an Associate of Science degree in Nursing from NIACC and a Master’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Iowa.

CHRYSTEN DOHRMANN Chrysten has served as an instructor for North Iowa Area Community College for four years, teaching cardiac and vascular content to Nursing students in the ADN program.

Prior to working at NIACC, she gained significant cardiac knowledge when working for eight years as a leader on the Cardiac Stepdown Unit at Mercy One in Mason City, and multiple ERs/ICUs in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and in Des Moines. Chrysten received her masters degree in Nursing in Leadership and Management from Walden University and her bachelors degree in Nursing from Allen College in Waterloo.

ANGIE ANSTINE Angie Anstine has worked at MercyOne North Iowa for more than 15 years in a variety of positions. Her work in the Marketing Department has allowed her to focus on creating clear and meaningful communications to the MercyOne North Iowa service area.

She enjoys creative writing and converting clinical material into engaging living room language so patients can find exactly the service they need, when they need it. Anstine attended UNI and her two kids are also proud Panthers. She lives in Northwood with her two dogs and enjoys trips to the south in the winter and motorcycle trips with friends in the summer months.

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Sunday, May 9, 2021 |

USING ART

TO COPE Facing helplessness and fatigue, some health care workers seek out creative outlets

MAKEDA EASTER

Los Angeles Times‌

‌LOS ANGELES – “COVID Fatigue” is how surgeon Dr. Frank Candela titled his painting — a weary blue face enveloped in a cloud of black. During the winter COVID-19 surge in L.A., Candela sent the painting to Times health reporter Soumya Karlamangla, who tweeted: “When I asked him what inspired the image, he said, ‘my colleagues faces.’”

As the pandemic stretched toward the one-year mark, with about half a million deaths in the U.S. alone, health care workers were increasingly burned out and traumatized.

For some, staying creative is a form of escape, a way to cope with stress or a strategy for sharing a message of hope with their community. The Times spoke to four health care

workers — who are also a painter, a choreographer or an ings. About half are directly related to the pandemic. He illustrator — to learn more about how the pandemic has was particularly inspired by a nurse in a Dove commercial, affected their artistry. struck by her exhaustion and the marks the mask left on her face. He said it captured “not just the outward appearance but the inward appearance of so many health care workers C. Michael Gibson: interventional who’ve been traumatized by the violence.” cardiologist, researcher, educator, painter Other paintings have been more abstract, but still the In Dr. C. Michael Gibson’s oil painting “The Last Shift,” pandemic showed up in subtle ways — like the increased a line of dark, floating silhouettes drifts off into a hazy use of grays, red and blues. “They’re not very happy paintlight. Gibson shared the painting, which was auctioned ings,” he said. for $25,000 to support health care workers, on Twitter last A recent ray of light: He helped to administer vaccines March, adding: “Welcome home to all of our courageous one weekend in Central Falls, Rhode Island. “It reminded me why I was a doctor. It was a really good experience.” #CoronaHeroes who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

The isolation of the pandemic has meant more time to look inward. For Gibson, “The Last Shift” is a meditation G. Sofia Nelson: pulmonologist, choreographer on spirituality and vulnerability, “not afraid to talk about it, As a physician who specializes in the respiratory system, knowing that so many other people were probably facing the Dr. G. Sofia Nelson splits her time between clinic and hossame concerns about where’s everyone going after this. Are pital settings in Oxnard and Camarillo, California. When they going to be OK? All those issues we all struggle with.” making hospital rounds before the pandemic, Nelson typAs a practicing physician, Gibson spends one day each ically saw about 15 patients each day. But during the recent week doing procedures, opening up people’s arteries. It’s a COVID-19 surge in Southern California, Nelson saw bevisual job, he said. “You’re looking at a screen and finding tween 50 and 60 patients every day. these blockages and making them better, so we’re kind of Nelson, 33, would often return home from work, not bevisual athletes. And being a painter has always made me a cause she had treated every patient, but because she was better visual athlete.” exhausted. There was also triaging, she said, deciding In addition to his work as a cardiologist, researcher and which patients could benefit from continued treatment.

Flow arts, a form of dance that involves prop manipulaeducator, he paints most nights and weekends at his studio in Natick, Massachusetts. Art is his way to communicate non- tion, such as hoops, or juggling, was one way Nelson coped verbally and “allow a lot of all those feelings, emotions and with the stress. right sided things that are all pent up in there to come out.”

During the pandemic, Gibson has created about 10 paintPlease see CREATIVE, Page 17

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| Sunday, May 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

THERESA AHLF ‌T

Good Samaritan Society charge nurse loved by residents and staff

MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

heresa Ahlf has cared for people at both the beginning and the end of life in her job as a nurse.

“I started out in labor and deliver where we brought the babies in, and now I’m where everybody leaves,” said Ahlf, who began her nursing career at MercyOne North Iowa and now works at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in St. Ansgar. “I’ve seen both aspects of it.”

The rural St. Ansgar resident worked the night shift in the labor and deliver ward at Mercy One for almost five years before she was offered her current job. She accepted it so she could work days and not have to commute so far.

She’s been at the Good Samaritan Society for 2 1/2 years. She is a charge nurse, which involves overseeing the CNAs and all aspects of resident care.

End of life care is an inevitable part of working at a nursing home, and that was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Good Samaritan Society had a huge outbreak in November, with 10 residents dying from the virus.

“That was tough,” Ahlf said.

The staff worked extremely long hours during the pandemic, according to Ahlf. She recalls one week in particular where she put in 76 hours over a span of seven days.

Like all nursing homes, Good Samarian didn’t allow any visitors inside the facility for an entire year because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“Not being able to see their families took a toll on a lot of them (the residents),” Alhf said.

A lot of residents experienced depression because they couldn’t see their loved ones in person, according to Ahlf.

“It was hard seeing the residents struggle,” she said.

“You see the residents going from being very alert and knowing their families to now they don’t even know “I just love it all. “I their family.”

But things are finally love taking care of looking now that all the people, being there residentsuphave been vacfor support in any cinated and the facility is open to visitors once again, way I can.” she said.

Ahlf started training to Theresa Ahlf become a nurse at age 42.

“I had always wanted to be a nurse since I can remember, but I never thought I was smart enough,” she said.

Then she was laid off from her job at Woodharbor Doors and Cabinetry.

“I thought, ‘You know, I have a lot of years left to work, I might as well do what I want to do,’” Ahlf said.

She completed the nursing program at North Iowa Area Community College to become an RN. “I was probably the oldest one in class,” she said.

Ahlf then earned her bachelor of science degree in nursing through the online program at Chamberlain University.

SUBMITTED‌

Theresa Ahlf is enjoying her second career, doing what she was meant to do, she said. The rural St. Ansgar resident is a nurse at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in St. Ansgar.

She said she’s enjoyed “pretty much everything” about nursing, whether it’s been bringing a new life into the world or giving the Good Samaritan residents a hug or sitting and chatting with them.

“I just love it all,” Ahlf said. “I love taking care of people, being there for support in any way I can.”

Brooke Beavers, one of Ahlf’s co-workers at Good Samaritan who will also be her daughter-in-law soon, said the love she puts into caring for our patients is out of this world.

“Theresa has been a wonderful caring nurse, not only in labor and deliver, but long-term care and end of life care,” Beavers said. “She goes above and beyond to make sure everyone is treated with kindness and dignity.”

Ahlf also goes the extra mile for her co-workers by filling in for them whenever she’s needed, Beavers said.

Brandy Sue Woods, director of nursing at the Good Samaritan Society, said Ahlf is reliable, highly knowledgeable and caring.

“She thinks of others before herself,” she said.

Ahlf is also professional and efficient, according to Woods.

“She just has that way about her. She’s just in charge,” she said. “She has great ideas.”

Ahlf is highly respected by her fellow employees, according to Woods.

“The residents love her,” she said.

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Sunday, May 9, 2021 |

5

National Nurses Week at a glance ‌National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday.

The American Nurses Association has extended the Year of the Nurse and Midwife into 2021, an opportunity to highlight all that nurses are, have been, and will be in our society.

A brief history of National Nurses Week 1953—Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a “Nurse Day” in October of the following year. The proclamation was never made.

1954—National Nurse Week was observed from October 11—16.

1974—In January of that year, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) proclaimed that May 12 would be “International Nurse Day.” 1974—In February of that year, a week was designated by the White House as National Nurse Week, and President Nixon issued a proclamation.

1982—President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation on March 25, proclaiming “National Recognition Day for Nurses” to be May 6, 1982.

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| Sunday, May 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

BONNIE BUTIN MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

‌I

n her 23 years as a nurse at the Concord Care Center in Garner, Bonnie Butin never imagined she would go through something like caring for people during a global pandemic.

“It was a learning experience,” she said. “It was very busy and you needed to be especially attentive to the residents.”

Concord residents who tested positive for COVID-19 had to be in a different part of the building than everyone else to prevent the spread of the virus.

“It was a scary time,” Butin said.

“You just had to reassure them and hope for the best.”

She said the hardest thing for her was the residents couldn’t see their

“She goes above and beyond for her residents and co-workers. She will come in and work on the floor as a CNA if it means her fellow coworkers don’t have to work shorthanded. She is always a delight to work with.”

Christal Dutcher families because Concord Care Center, like other nursing homes, banned visitors during the pandemic.

“You need to try to be their family,” she said.

Butin admires how the residents have persevered under such trying circumstances.

“I don’t think I could do it was well as they have been doing it,” she said.

Butin is thankful things have improved to the point where Concord Care Center can allow visitors in the building with some restrictions, including mask wearing and temperature checks.

“They (the residents) are very lonely,” she said.

One of Butin’s former co-workers at the Concord Care Center, Christal Dutcher, nominated her to be featured in the “Nurses: The Heart of Health Care” special section of the Globe Gazette.

“She goes above and beyond for her residents and co-workers,” Dutcher stated in her nomination letter. “She will come in and work on the floor as a CNA if it means her fellow coworkers don’t have to work short-handed. She is always a delight to work with.”

Before Butin graduated from the LPN program at North Iowa Area Community College and began working at the Concord Care Center, she was a cook for the Garner-Hayfield School District.

She said she enjoyed the job, but wanted to help people and do better for them.

“I just wanted to learn and help people in a way that not everyone can help them,” she said.

The Garner resident said she enjoys working at a nursing home because she loves working with the elderly, and just helping them and having empathy for them and trying to make them feel better about things.

“When they can’t see their family, you are more or less their family, and give them support,” she said. “It’s very hard for them.”

Because Butin has been at the Concord Care Center for so long, she has seen a lot of people come and go – both residents and other staff members.

“It’s fun sometimes to talk to fellow workers who have been here for a long time too and just talk about different people and staff and kind of laugh or cry,” she said.

Butin enjoys the atmosphere at Concord Care Center.

“I love my co-workers. I love the residents,” she said. “It makes it easy sometimes. We all have our bad days, but it makes it easy I love what I do. Helping the people, it’s rewarding.”

Concord Care Center nurse says pandemic was a learning experience

SUBMITTED‌

Garner resident and Concord Care Center nurse Bonnie Butin said she “enjoys working at a nursing home because she loves working with the elderly, and just helping them and having empathy for them and trying to make them feel better about things.”

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| Sunday, May 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

MICKI FREDRICKS ‌A MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

s a school nurse, Micki Fredricks has played a key role in the fight against COVID-19 in Mason City.

“It changed the whole environment of school nursing,” said Fredricks, who is in her fifth school year at Mason City High School.

She has been offering guidance to students and families since the pandemic began more than a year ago. For example, if a member of the household, she tells them where they can get tested.

Fredricks said she saw increased anxiety and depression among the students, especially at the beginning of the school year.

They had a lot of concerns and questions, such as “How am I going to get through the whole day wearing a mask?

How am I going to play volleyball? How am I going to play football wearing a mask?”

Fredricks said.

Like her counterparts across the country, Fredricks has been involved in the establishment of school COVID-19 procedures and protocols.

“Micki has just been a tremendous lifeline for our building and our district, especially over the past year,” said Mason City High School Principal Dan Long. “She just truly cares about kids and people and is here to help. She’s a phenomenal person.”

Fredricks has been a nurse for 19 years.

She received her RN training at North Iowa Area Community College. After graduation she worked at MercyOne North Iowa before taking a position with the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health.

When she heard there as an opening for a nurse at Mason City High School, she decided to apply.

“I love kids. I’ve always really enjoyed working with teenagers especially,” Fredricks said.

She had several kids of her own attending Mason City High School at the time.

“I thought it would be a really good way to spend some extra time with them,” Fredricks said.

The transition from her previous job to her new one was easy because being a school nurse “is really a public health position,” she said. “What we see in the community we see on a smaller scale in the hallways here.”

The job of a school nurse goes far beyond what some people realize, according

to Fredricks.

“I think there’s a real misconception out there that we just put Band-Aids on and hand out meds,” she said.

In reality, school nurses are heavily involved in day-today activities at school, according to Fredricks. She said the job also includes mental health nursing.

“We get involved with students who are homeless,” she said.

School nurses also are involved in the Individual Education Plans (IEP) for students with medical needs, follow immunization records for all students, and act as the liaison between the school and the doctor’s offices in the community, according to Fredricks.

She said Mason City High School has students with significant medical conditions. Some have to be tube-fed or catharized. Others have diabetes.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, school nurses in Iowa have been responsible for contract tracing for students who test positive, according to Fredricks. This involves asking those students who they have been around and contacting those individuals.

Before the pandemic, Fredricks was the only nurse at the high school. However, COVID-19 increased her workload so much that the district had to hire a fulltime long-term substitute nurse to handle Fredricks’ ordinary duties so she could concentrate on pandemic-related work.

“COVID was a full-time job,” Fredricks said.

Megan Brood, the Mason City High School social worker, said Fredricks “just went above and beyond” this past year.

“She is focused on what’s best for kids, no matter what,” Brood said. “She just loves everyone. She thinks of her students and our families as her family.”

Fredricks said she feels fortunate to have the support of everyone else working at the high school.

She also said she appreciates that the administration and staff have a team approach and focus on the whole student, not just academics.

“I love my students. I love the people that I work with. I just feel really blessed to be able to do what I do,” Fredricks said.

“There’s not a day that goes by that one of the students or multiple students don’t make me laugh, don’t teach me something.”

MCHS nurse’s job more important than ever in COVID era

“I love kids. I’ve always really enjoyed working with teenagers especially.”

Micki Fredricks

MASON CITY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT‌

Mason City Community School District nurse Micki Fredricks receives the COVID-19 vaccine last week.

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Minnesota nurse looks back on a long career with

HUMOR

CURT BROWN

O

(Minneapolis) Star Tribune

n a 20-below-zero night in 1965, nurse Caroline Rosdahl explained to a patient that he couldn’t legally leave Hennepin County General Hospital because he was on a psychiatrist hold.

“Next thing I know, he’s running down the third-floor hall with me right behind him,” she recalled. “He crashed right through the window, landed unhurt on a snow-covered bush and didn’t miss a beat — running down 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis.”

Rosdahl called police, who asked how to identify the AWOL patient.

“Well, he’ll be the only one running with an openbacked hospital gown and paper slippers,” she said with a laugh. “It didn’t take long before they brought him back.”

That’s just one of the anecdotes in Rosdahl’s new self-published memoir, “The Naked City” — a title inspired by that night in the psych ward. (It’s available on

SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2021 |

Amazon at tinyurl.com/NurseRosdahl).

Rosdahl, 83, recently retired after more than 50 years as a nurse, educator and textbook author. She used her pandemic isolation to chronicle a career that started as a teenage nursing aide in her hometown of Sauk Centre, through her years as Wright County’s lone public health nurse in the early 1960s and the ensuing decades on hospital floors from Hennepin County to the University of Minnesota. Her cutting-edge use of behavioral objectives in nursing education in Anoka County led to 11 editions of “Textbook of Basic Nursing” — a widely used tome for student nurses.

“Textbooks are putzy; this project was a lot more fun,” she said from her home in Plymouth.

At a time when appreciation for nurses — and the need to laugh — are both justifiably sky high, Rosdahl’s tales prompt chuckles while offering a firsthand glimpse from health care’s front lines.

There are plenty of awful memories, like an auto mechanic’s blowtorch explosion that left him horriPlease see HUMOR, Page 15

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NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

JENNA KUECHENBERG ‌A MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

s director of nursing at Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake, Jenna Kuechenberg has had a difficult year.

She said the one word that comes to mind when she thinks about the COVID-19 pandemic is “exhausting.”

“It was really hard on the residents,” she said.

For her the worst part was telling them they couldn’t see their loved ones during the lockdown.

“That was heartbreaking,” Kuechenberg said.

But now that most of the residents have been vaccinated and can visit in person with their families again, “It’s getting significantly better,” she said.

Oakwood Care Center now has three visiting areas where families can go be with their loved ones.

“We have loosened up the time frame so families are able to come and go as they please,” Kuchenberg said.

Another reason to celebrate was the deficiency-free report Oakwood Care Center received in March following a state survey. Kuechenberg said the nurses are the biggest reason the facility was able to achieve this despite the pandemic.

Sheri Weaver-Isvik, Oakwood Care Center administrator, said Kuechenberg “was instrumental in leading the uncharted waters of the COVID pandemic at Oakwood, yet she would never claim any more credit than others on the Oakwood team.”

With little time to plan and no experience to draw on, Kuechenberg and her nursing team met all the challenges of the pandemic, according to Weaver-Isvik.

“Every aspect of resident/tenant care was reviewed, and a multitude of infection control measures were implemented, not only with the nursing department, but with all Oakwood departments,” she said.

Plans and implementation of an isolation area were put in to place immediately, and staff education regarding COVID the first priority for all departments, according to Weaver-Isvik.

“COVID testing for employees and residents became a regular event and

Jenna assisted in scheduling the testing as well as actually performing COVID testing,” she said.

The pandemic added to Kuechenberg’s already long list of responsibilities as director of nursing in a number of other ways, according to Weaver-Isvik.

At the onset of COVID, there were a constant barrage of emails to decipher from the local public health, Iowa Department of Public Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and an array of other agencies, according to Weaver-Isvik.

“The struggle to obtain adequate PPE lasted well into the fall months as items such as masks and gloves became difficult to obtain,” she said.

As the COVID vaccination clinics evolved, Kuechenberg was instrumental in organizing the vaccination area and worked at the clinics, according to Weaver-Isvik. She said those dispensing the vaccines said the Oakwood clinics were the most organized ones they had seen.

“This past 14 months of the COVID challenge has proven that it truly takes a team to meet the unprecedented challenges COVID brought about, and Jenna’s leadership was instrumental in that teamwork,” she said.

Kuechenberg has been a nurse for nine years. She received her RN training at Iowa Central Community College in Webster City and is currently studying online for her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Governor’s University in Utah.

Before taking her current job at Oakwood nearly three years ago, she worked at Grand Jivante in Ackley. Before that, she was at the Hubbard Care Center.

“I thought I would hate that job, but I loved it,” she said.

Kuechenberg said she’s tried working in a hospital setting, but keeps going back to nursing homes.

“I love these people (the residents),” she said. “There’s a few I would love to just pack up and take home with me.”

Kuechenberg, who lives in Iowa Falls, drives an hour to get to work each day and drives another hour to get home.

“I just think it (Oakwood) is a fun place to be. I genuinely like all of my staff, and so that has made it worth it,” she said.

Oakwood’s director of nursing led the way through pandemic year

SUBMITTED‌

With little time to plan and no experience to draw on, Oakwood Care Center Director of Nursing Jenna Kuechenberg and her nursing team met all the challenges of the pandemic.

Training and supporting nurses since 1962.

• Nationally accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) • 100% placement rates for all seeking employment • 100% ADN NCLEX-RN first time pass rate (2020) • Go from RN to BSN with the 3+1 program with the University of Iowa, Iowa State and Waldorf

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NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

LAUREN McWHORTER MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

‌L

auren McWhorter, an LPN at Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake, was certified as an infection control specialist in March 2019.

At the time she had no idea just how valuable that training would be.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year later, McWhorter became responsible for keeping the virus under control at the nursing home.

She was in charge of COVID testing and reporting for Oakwood. McWhorter also helped implement the strategy on setting up an isolation area at the nursing home for those who were infected to keep them separated from the other residents.

“It’s been a long year,” she said.

It was stressful because things were constantly changing, according to McWhorter.

“One day was never the same as the next,” she said.

The worst part of the pandemic was “not letting people see their loved ones,” McWhorter said.

During the warmer weather, residents were allowed to sit outside the building with their loved ones as long as they stayed six feet apart and wore face masks.

However, those visits had to be discontinued during the winter.

But spring has brought good tidings, according to McWhorter.

Oakwood had its annual survey by state inspectors in March. The survey included asking questions of the residents The facility was deemed deficiency free.

“The fact that we came out unscathed even with COVID was a huge deal,” McWhorter said. “It says a lot about Oakwood. We kept people happy.”

Sheri Weaver-Isvik, administrator of Oakwood Care Center, which is part of the ABCM Corporation, said McWhorter’s role has been crucial since the facility closed its doors to everyone but employees in March 2020.

“From that time on, and still today, Lauren’s main focus was, and is, infection control and keeping our residents, tenants and team members safe,” she said.

McWhorter has remained instrumental in providing education to our team regarding all aspects of infection control, according to Weaver-Isvik.

“She has proven a primary player in updating facility information to the county, state and federal agencies who mandated continual updates,” she said.

“Communication with updates on policy and continual guidance from ABCM Corporation consultants were also vital as guidelines, policies and procedures changed sometimes daily.”

McWhorter also was instrumental in establishing in-facility COVID-19 vaccination clinics, and continues to communicate with pharmacies to secure vaccine does when Oakwood has new admissions and employees who have not had the vaccine, Weaver-Isvik said.

Even with vaccination efforts underway, McWhorter said she still feels a little apprehensive about making big changes.

“I want so much more for the residents that we keep pushing forward even though we are a little nervous about things,” she said. “It’s not about my feelings. it’s about the residents being happy.”

McWhorter began working as an ABCM eight years ago as a CNA. She completed her LPN training at North Iowa Area Community College five years ago.

She loves working with senior citizens.

“You know how people are like, ‘Oh, that baby’s so cute?’ I say that about old people,” McWhorter said.

Her grandfather died when she was very young and she grew up far away from her other grandparents, so she never got to develop relationships with the elderly growing up, she said.

McWhorter is making up for it now.

“I just love the old stories, the old photos, the relationships,” she said.

It’s rewarding to be able to be another level of support for the residents, according to McWhorter.

“Their families aren’t always able to be there every single day, but we are,” she said.

The highlight of 2021 so far has been watching Olivia Myers, the activities coordinator at Oakwood, tell families who come in to visit that they can hug their loved ones now, according to McWhorter.

She said the staff is almost as emotional during that moment as the residents’ loved ones.

“We’re watching the hug and crying because we waited so long to see this,” McWhorter said.

Oakwood Care Center nurse steps up during pandemic

SUBMITTED‌

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit at the Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake, Lauren McWhorter became responsible for keeping the virus under control at the nursing home.

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Sunday, May 9, 2021 |

AMANDA McNEESE ‌L MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

ast year Amanda McNeese, a critical care nurse at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center, had the priceless opportunity to walk a COVID-19 patient out of the ICU. McNeese cared for the patient for 28 days in the fall. He spent 17 of those days on a ventilator.

“He wanted to make it home before his daughter’s boyfriend graduated from cadet school so it was a big thing for him,” McNeese said.

The patient was released from the hospital in time to attend the ceremony.

He has also returned to work.

It’s rare to be able to walk any patient out of the ICU, especially a COVID patient, according to McNeese.

“We worked really hard together,” she said.

McNeese did therapy with the patient in his room while communicating via iPad with his family.

“It was like we were doing therapy together,” she said.

McNeese and the patient set goals and had a checklist of everything they needed to accomplish that day.

“Amanda became our family’s eyes and ears as due to the pandemic we were unable to be by his side,” stated the man’s wife in her nomination letter for McNeese to be featured in the Globe Gazette’s “Nurses: The Heart of Health Care” special section.

“She provided him assurance, letting him know she would be by his side until he was able to come home,” she stated.

“To this day my husband refers to her as his guardian angel. She holds a special place in my heart and I am so thankful for her.”

McNeese’s supervisor, Emily Orton, director of critical care at MercyOne North Iowa, said she “builds fantastic relationships with her patients. She has the right amount of caring while still pushing them to do what they need to do to get better.”

McNeese’s work with the man who she walked out of the CCU unit is the perfect example, according to Orton.

“It was really touching,” she said.

“He’s the first patient I’ve actually seen walk out of critical care and be

discharged home after having fought so hard through COVID.” Orton said what McNeese did for the patient “really impacted his life and his wife’s life.”

She said McNeese had the patient walking, marching in place, going up and down the stairs, and doing everything else he needed to do therapy-wise to be able to go home and take care of himself.

“Amanda’s such a hard worker,” Orton said. “She picked up numerous extra shifts during the COVID crisis. She jumped right in. She was definitely not a person to shy away from those patients.”

McNeese said she volunteered to work with COVID patients because a lot of other nurses were particularly vulnerable to the virus because of their age or health issues, or because they were pregnant.

Working with COVID patients was stressful and heartbreaking, but also rewarding, according to McNeese.

“You just never knew what would happen minute to minute, hour to hour,” she said. “It was just non-stop, but I learned so much.”

McNeese said she enjoyed working with multiple physicians and other nurses as a team.

She said she felt like “I was the lifeline between the patients and the families” because no visitors were allowed.

McNeese started at MercyOne as an aide on the surgical floor eight years ago after working at a nursing home in Britt where she lives.

After graduating from Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge nearly two years ago, McNeese began working as a RN at the CCU at MercyOne. McNeese’s grandmother, who was her best friend growing up, encouraged her to become a nurse.

“She said, ‘You’re good at stuff like this,’” McNeese said. “She pointed me in the right direction.”

Although her grandmother wasn’t a nurse, there’s lots of other nurses in McNeese’s family, including her sister, her aunts and her cousins.

McNeese said she enjoys learning to do new things and to help people through difficult times.

“I love my job,” she said.

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MercyOne nurse walks COVID patient out of the ICU

PHOTO COURTESY MERCYONE‌

Amanda McNeese holds the hand of a patient at MercyOne.

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| Sunday, May 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

DIANE NIEZWAAG ‌D MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

iane Niezwaag, who has spent her entire 37-year nursing career in the critical care unit at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center, has a passion for helping people.

“The important part of it (nursing) for me is that it’s a helping profession,” she said. “You meet so many people at the lowest time of their life, and sometimes being able to be that little bit of sunshine for them or the caregiver that helps them, that’s a very humbling experience.”

Because of her age, Niezwaag didn’t work with COVID-19 patients when the pandemic hit more than a year ago. Instead, she concentrated on cardiac and trauma patients, leaving the other nurses free to focus on those with COVID. “Hats off, hats off, hats off to my co-workers who were able to take care of the COVID patients,” she said.

“They did a miraculous job. It was very hard work for them.”

The visitor restrictions at the hospital affected all the staff and patients in the department, according to Niezwaag.

“It was hard to watch for me because we had several people die during that time with no family that could be at the bedside,” she said. “That was very difficult.”

Niezwaag was the only person who was there at the time of death for some cardiac patients that didn’t make it.

Early last year, Niezwaag cared for Ron Dannen of Mason City, who went to the hospital with bilateral pneumonia. His condition worsened to the point where he had to be put on a ventilator.

Ron’s wife, Leilani, said Niezwaag was an attentive nurse who also showed her great kindness while she could still visit her husband before the hospital closed to visitors due to COVID-19.

“She was very good to me,” she said.

Ron was eventually transferred to another hospital.

Leilana said Niezwaag became a friend to both her and her husband.

“She just really impressed us with

her kindness and her good care as an RN,” she said.

Niezwaag, a Charles City resident, received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

She started out studying Spanish with the goal of being an interpreter.

She said she changed her mind because of some of her classmates, who were planning to become nurses.

“I thought, ‘maybe that would be for me,’” Niezwaag said.

Niezwaag has been working in the CCU longer than anyone else in the department.

“She’s a very caring, fantastic nurse,” said Emily Orton, critical care director at MercyOne in Mason City.

“She’s such a hard worker. She takes great care of patients.”

The others in her department look up to her and go to her for advice, according to Orton.

She said Niezwaag cares a great deal about the patients and staff, not just in her department but throughout the hospital.

For 35 years, Niezwaag worked as a nurse in the Charles City School District in addition to her duties at MercyOne. “She really owned that and took great care of that community,” Orton said.

Niezwaag said while she was a school nurse, she continued to work at the CCU at MercyOne during the weekends, on school vacations and during the summer.

If a CCU nurse had a baby during the summer, Niezwaag would take over her hours at the hospital.

“I really kept my critical care skills up to snuff,” she said.

What Niezwaag loved most about being a school nurse was the interactions with the students.

“They bring joy to you every day, something new every day,” she said.

Niezwaag said she saw how important it was that they had “someone they could count on in their corner.”

She said she owes her success as a nurse to the mentors and staff she has worked with over the years.

“This is a team effort and my team in critical care is the best,” Niezwaag said.

Critical care nurse at MercyOne provides ‘a little bit of sunshine’

SUBMITTED‌

Diane Niezwaag, who has spent her entire 37-year nursing career in the critical care unit at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center, concentrated on cardiac and trauma patients, leaving the other nurses free to focus on those with COVID.

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Humor From Page 9

bly burned. Or the autopsy she witnessed that revealed a young woman hadn’t been pregnant, but thought she was — dying from drinking too much quinine to induce an abortion in the 1950s before the procedure was legalized.

Her humorous memories offset the heavy stuff. As a school nurse in the northern Minnesota town of Waubun, population about 400, she asked students to fill out index cards with their birth dates, parents’ contact information, allergies and other basic information. In the small box labeled “Sex,” where students were supposed to put “male” or “female,” one girl jotted down: “Once in Waubun.”

Writes Rosdahl: “It was a good thing it was only once, because that space on the card was very small.”

Years later, admitting a woman to the hospital, Rosdahl ran through routine questions about last bowel movements and menstrual periods.

“When I asked her the next question on the list, ‘Are you sexually active?’ she looked around and then looked thought-

Sunday, May 9, 2021 |

“If you don’t have a sense of humor, it’s almost impossible to work as a nurse because things often turn so sad” Caroline Rosdahl, who recently retired after more than 50 years as a nurse, educator and textbook author.

fully at the ceiling for several seconds. She then replied, in all seriousness, ‘No, I pretty much just lie there!’”

Humor, Rosdahl insists, is as important a trait for nurses as compassion and anatomical know-how.

“If you don’t have a sense of humor, it’s almost impossible to work as a nurse because things often turn so sad,” she said.

An only child, Rosdahl was born Caroline Bunker in 1937. Her father, Frank Bunker, dabbled in poetry and served as a

Sauk Centre postman. He knew everyone in town — including Sauk Centre’s literary lion, Nobel Prize-winning writer Sinclair Lewis and his father, Dr. E.J. Lewis, a town doctor.

Her introduction to nursing came as she suffered rheumatic fever at age 4. Idolizing her nurse, Mrs. Runion, little Caroline dreamed of following in her “Cuban-heeled white shoes.”

Her father suffered a heart attack when she was 16. The principal pulled her from

gym class, but a nun barred her from entering St. Michael’s Hospital because her gym clothes were deemed inappropriate.

Quietly seething, she went home to change.

She had applied to be a nursing aide at the hospital, which at the time was hiring only Catholic girls despite its standing as the Sauk Centre community hospital. One of the nuns, soon after the heart attack, called to offer her a job — saying later how the teenager impressed her by staying calm despite her fear and anger. Key nursing attributes.

“I was mad, but I must have been polite because I became the test case — the first Protestant girl hired as a nursing assistant,” Rosdahl said.

She was on her way, literally writing the book on nursing through her popular textbooks. Twice married with one son and three stepchildren, Rosdahl is famous for more than nursing.

She always wanted to play saxophone or clarinet in a marching band, which wasn’t possible for women when she first went to University of Minnesota in the mid-1950s.

Back at the U, working on her doctorate in her late 30s, Rosdahl became the band’s elder member in 1975 and still plays the clarinet.

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| Sunday, May 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

NAOMI REIFF ‌W MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

hen a COVID-19 patient was dying in the critical care unit at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center without family there, nurse Naomi Reiff held her hand and sang to her.

The song was “Jesus Loves Me,” but Reiff changed the lyrics to “Jesus Loves You.” This moment was shared in her nomination letter for the Daily Award, which is presented to a MercyOne North Iowa nurse each month.

Reiff won the award.

“That was a snapshot in time that somebody captured, but my

“Within the past year she has had to learn everything she could to care for COVID patients.

I am honored and proud to work side-by-side with this knowledgeable, compassionate, selfless nurse. You rock, Naomi!”

Amanda McNeese co-workers do things like that all the time, little things for the patient,” she said. “I feel like everyone is deserving of that award, not just nurses, but everyone who comes into contact with patients.”

That attitude is typical of Reiff, said her supervisor, Emily Orton, director of critical care at the hospital.

“She is so humble and modest, but she’s wonderful,” Orton said. “Naomi is so caring.”

She said Reiff always “goes the extra mile” and advocates for patients.

It was difficult for patients during the COVID crisis because their families couldn’t be with them, according to Orton.

Reiff was there for those patients, praying with them and “just really touching things like that,” Orton said.

Reiff, a Floyd resident, began working at MercyOne in 2016 after graduating from the RN program at North Iowa Area Community College.

In addition to her duties in the CCU, she also cares for post-operative open heart surgery patients.

Reiff became a nurse because she wanted to help others.

“People really interest me, how they work both physically and mentally,” she said.

For Reiff, the best part of being a nurse is seeing someone who was really sick sit up in bed or walk for the first time.

“It’s really rewarding to see people get better,” she said.

Reiff said she experienced “lots of different emotions” during the pandemic.

“It was pretty depressing for a while with how sick people were and how we did all this stuff and they weren’t getting better,” she said.

“But I thought everyone really stuck together.”

It was disheartening to hear some people downplaying COVID-19, according to Reiff. However, she said she understands that the situation was a difficult thing for everyone to deal with.

Now that things are finally looking up after so long, it’s a strange place to be in emotionally, according to Reiff.

She said she and the other CCU nurses get lots of appreciation from the public, “but the nursing home part of it and home care don’t get as much support as we do and they do just as important of a job.”

One of Reiff’s co-workers, Amanda McNeese, nominated her to be featured in the “Nurses: The Heart of Health Care” special section of the Globe Gazette.

“Naomi advocated for her patients to get the best care and treatment provided by MercyOne,” McNeese stated in her nomination letter.

“Within the past year she has had to learn everything she could to care for COVID patients. I am honored and proud to work side-by-side with this knowledgeable, compassionate, selfless nurse. You rock, Naomi!”

MercyOne CCU nurse sang to and prayed with COVID patients

Naomi Reiff, a Floyd resident, began working at MercyOne in 2016 after graduating from the RN program at North Iowa Area Community College. Her supervisor calls her “humble and honest and so caring.”

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Sunday, May 9, 2021 |

Creative

reaching the same type of head space many surgeons use in their practice, she said. “It’s From Page 3 really important that we create a culture where physicians are encouraged to have “It’s been long days, but it’s very power- creative outlets like this. We create a society ful having something to come home to, for in which not just physicians, but anybody, which I can pretty much shut off my brain. really has that kind of opportunity.”

I can just really focus on my body,” Nelson said. “The more I’m working my mind and Tessa Moeller: nurse, painter the more I’m thinking, the harder my job Working as a nurse in a Miami trauma becomes, the more I actually have to dance burn unit during the early days of the panto maintain that balance.” demic, when personal protective equipment She’s also the director of Lumia Dance ran low and there were many unknowns Company, which she launched in 2019 as a about COVID-19, was terrifying for Tessa way to give back to the arts community. In Moeller.

December the company premiered its dePainting was an outlet to handle the high but show virtually, “Light Through Dark- stress of the hospital, where she typically ness,” featuring dance, aerial arts and fire worked three days a week. “Sometimes I spinning — all filmed in an empty North would come home, especially after a particHollywood theater. ularly scary day, and I would shower (and) Nelson choreographed three dances in the go right to painting.” show over several months, typically rehearsWhen Moeller, 29, wasn’t working in ing on Zoom during evenings and weekends. the hospital, she juggled commissions and One dance was a post-apocalyptic hoop created art to express how she felt in the piece about the pandemic experience, an- moment. other was inspired by what she described as Last March, she began a COVID-19 series the government’s increased militarization of paintings of nurses she knew, including and fascism, and a duet explored the pitfalls one of a colleague who works in ICUs inof social media. serting catheters and another who became The show is over, so Nelson mainly dances infected with COVID-19 while studying to at home as a form of movement meditation, become a nurse anesthesiologist.

Last May, Moeller moved to Portland, Oregon, and began working in an oncology unit.

In the early days of the pandemic, the fear and confusion emerged through her use of bright reds and expressive brushstrokes.

After moving, Moeller’s paintings became more detailed and controlled with “a lot of neurotic brushstrokes,” she said.

“That really sort of portrays how I was feeling, and I think a lot of nurses were feeling, from the frantic beginning to them just becoming very careful and controlled and anxious and making sure that everything is very — trying to exert control, when you don’t have control on your situation.”

Now based in Boston, Moeller has completed about 20 paintings in her COVID-19 series and is preparing to enter an MFA studio art program at Syracuse University.

Bing Li: medical resident, illustrator Drawing was part of Dr. Bing Li’s life before she considered studying medicine. Last year, as a medical resident who works in a Brooklyn emergency room, Bing turned to art as a way of managing the grueling hours and pervading feeling of helplessness while New York was the epicenter of COVID-19.

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Drawing landscape pieces and comics is a relaxing escape, a way to “feel like I have control and creating something that feels productive that’s also fun,” Li said.

Maintaining an art practice is crucial for Li, 32. “We all see a lot of suffering that doesn’t necessarily have a meaning,” Li said.

“The desire to make art is kind of like a desire to put a meaning into something.”

Although most of Li’s art practice doesn’t intersect with her work in health care, she made a comic last November based on a conversation between medical residents working through COVID-19. “I’d like to maybe eventually make more stuff that’s related to what we’re experiencing in health care, but it also feels like you’re kind of reliving the moment, and you may not feel necessarily ready for that.”

Since the pandemic began, Li has made close to 30 pages of a lighthearted web comic described as being “about adventure, friendship and a weird squishy creature.”

Although the pandemic doesn’t show up directly in the work, experiences of the last year are often prioritized in the storytelling — themes of working collectively for the greater good, Li said, and “having a society that will care for each other, rather than a selfish society where people care just about their individual comforts.”

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| Sunday, May 9, 2021

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

NIKKI STEERE ‌N MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

ikki Steere has already made a big impression at Country Meadow Place.

Steere joined the Mason City care center as its new healthcare coordinator in January and has found a home there.

“She works super hard each and every day to make sure our residents are happy and health,” said Tyler Hedegard, facility administrator. “She is always willing to help, even on her day off. The passion she has for being a nurse is one of a kind.”

Steere has been a nurse for 18 years.

“I love caring for people,” she said.

Caring for the elderly is in Steere’s blood. Her mother was a care center nurse before becoming an administrator.

“I kind of grew up in the nursing home atmosphere and I know a lot of the ins and outs,” Steere said. “I very much like working with the geriatric population, especially memory care.

It’s something different every day.”

Country Meadow Place specializes in memory care.

“We offer a very safe and secure environment for them (the residents),” Steere said.

To protect residents who are prone to wandering off and getting lost, only those who have a key fob can leave the facility, she said.

Country Meadow Place also offers specialized programs for residents with memory issues, and the staff is trained in dementia care, according to Steere.

Steere received her LPN training from Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo and her RN training from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.

Steere, a Nashua resident, spent most of her career at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo, but she also worked for a time at St. Croix Hospice in Charles City where the majority of the patients she worked with were elderly. She also worked in a nursing home setting as an LPN. Before coming to Country Meadow Place, Steere worked as a pediatric home nurse in the Shell Rock area for Universal Pediatrics, which is based in Newton.

She said she applied for the healthcare coordinator position at Country Meadow Place because she was looking to move into a leadership position after receiving her bachelor of science degree in nursing last year from Western Governors University.

Steere said the COVID-19 pandemic definitely changed the face of health care.

“It has revised almost every policy and procedure,” she said. “It had an impact on how we do almost everything. It’s definitely been a huge learning curve.”

Steere said there has been a big emphasis on infection control and getting the residents vaccinated as quickly and safely as possible so Country Meadow Place can reopen.

When Steere began working at Country Meadow Place, it was still closed to visitors because of the pandemic.

Now that visitors are being allowed back, the positive impact on the residents “has been huge,” Steere said.

“The residents can now go on outings with family members too and get out of this building for a little while, and that’s been great,” she said.

Residents who are fully vaccinated don’t have to quarantine when they return to Country Meadow Place.

The quarantine requirement discouraged many residents from going on outings, according to Steere.

“No one wants to be isolated,” she said.

However, now that the majority of the residents have received both their shots, a lot more of them are going on outings.

“It’s wonderful,” Steere said.

Steere is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Membership can only be obtained through nomination. The organization currently has more than 135,000 active members around the world.

Steere said the residents at Country Meadow Place are what she likes the most about her job.

“They are wonderful and unique,” she said. “Every day they make me smile.”

Steere said she loves to interact with the residents “and see the positive impact they we can make for them.”

New healthcare coordinator makes big impression at Country Meadow Place

Caring for the elderly is in Nikki Steere’s blood. Her mother was a care center nurse before becoming an administrator. “I kind of grew up in the nursing home atmosphere and I know a lot of the ins and outs,” Steere said.

NURSES: THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE

Sunday, May 9, 2021 |

JAKE TEFFT ‌W

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New nurse had to ‘hit the ground running’ during COVID-19 pandemic

MARY PIEPER

Special to the Globe Gazette‌

hen Jake Tefft was hired for his first nursing job by MercyOne North Iowa in January 2020, he had no idea what was coming.

The 27-year-old Mason City resident was still in training a few months later when the first COVID-19 patients arrived.

“It makes it a whole different learning curve,” said Tefft, who works in the hospital’s critical care unit. “You are working on your own pretty quick.”

He also had to do things he normally wouldn’t as part of his training.

“It was kind of a blessing in disguise,” Tefft said. “Having to hit the ground running, I gained a lot of experience and skills very quickly.”

Although the death of patients is something all critical care nurses experience, the COVID-19 pandemic was an especially trying time to begin working in the CCU. “I had to deal with a lot of death and dying,” Tefft said.

He once saw four patients die on the same day.

Family members weren’t allowed to visit the hospital because of the virus, so as a CCU nurse “you are the only one there with that person as they are passing on,” Tefft said.

Nurses acted as the liaison between the family and the patient, helping to facilitate Zoom and Facetime visits, he said.

The public showed its appreciation for the hospital staff by donating cookies and other treats, according to Tefft.

“That really helped boost morale a little bit,” he said.

Tefft’s supervisor, Emily Orton, critical care director at MercyOne North Iowa, said he is “just a fantastic new CCU nurse, just so eager to learn, just so caring and considerate of his patients.”

Orton noted one example that stood out to her: If a female patient with long hair is being intubated, he will braid her hair for her.

“He just goes the extra mile for his patients,” Orton said.

“I’m so proud of him.”

Patients at MercyOne can now have one support person visit them per day.

“It makes a huge difference,” Tefft said, especially for patients on a ventilator. Family members can actually see their loved ones and make better decisions for their care, he said.

Staff morale has also improved, according to Tefft.

During the height of the pandemic, the nurses had to work by themselves and wear a lot of PPE, he said.

Now that the staff can interact more, “It’s just much easier,” Tefft said.

Although everyone is still busy, “I think people are a lot less stressed out,” he said.

Tefft graduated from the RN program at North Iowa Area Community College. Before that he worked as a corrections officer with the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Office for three years.

He said a career in law enforcement is rewarding in

SUBMITTED‌

Pictured from left are MercyOne nurses Britney Meyer, Abby Beyer and Jake Tefft with boxes of cookies received from the public in appreciation of health care workers during the pandemic. many ways, but “I didn’t get that sense of satisfaction that I do now.”

Working in a jail setting is what sparked Tefft’s interest in the health care field.

The Cerro Gordo County Jail only has a nurse on site during the day, and Tefft worked second shift. If an inmate had a medical issue while he was on duty, the staff had to contact the nurse or her boss, a nurse practitioner.

Tefft said he was impressed with how the medical professionals were able to make a difference for the inmates, not just physically but also in their mood.

Now that he is a nurse, his favorite part about it is seeing

the turnaround in the patients.

“You see them at their very, very worst and then you are able to get them back from that and see them progress until they can graduate to a different floor, a lesser level of care,” Tefft said.

Tefft enjoys it when families will reach out to him later to tell him their loved one is home now and doing a lot better.

“It’s really rewarding to see that turnaround in people’s lives from the point that they could have easily died to being able to see them enjoy the rest of their life,” Tefft said. “That’s really cool.”

Thank You

for your dedication to Personalize Care

Happy National Nurses Week!

Through your commitment to our patients, communities and colleagues, we are able to address today’s challenges, and prepare for the exciting opportunities in our future.