2
MAY 10, 2020
Nurses Week
Nurses: The Heart of Health Care Missoulian Staff
Every night for a few weeks now, you can hear the howling around the Missoula area. Maybe you’ve participated in this evening ritual, a show of gratitude for those health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve howled, too. The nurses taking care of us are on our minds more than ever this year, but they’ve been at our sides long before this crisis hit Montana, and they’ll be checking our temperatures and listening to our heartbeats long after. They save our lives in the emergency room, like ER nurse Eric King, one of the professionals we honor this year: “People come in at their absolute worst, and we
have a chance to turn them around fast.” Some, like Janet Gates, walk with us at the end of our lives. “I’ve always been uncomfortable talking about nursing in terms of ‘a calling,’ but I guess that’s what it is,” Gates said. “It’s what I’m supposed to do.” They do it despite the strain on their personal and professional lives. Dorothy Burgess, another nurse awarded here, probably wouldn’t choose a different life: “It’s stressful and you work very hard, but it’s super rewarding.” We honor 10 nurses here, and we thank them for caring for us, healing us, and pushing us to take better care of ourselves too. Tonight, let’s howl an extra round.
Women, minorities shoulder front-line work during pandemic ANGELIKI KASTANIS Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) —Linda Silva knew something was wrong when she started coughing on a Saturday in late March. The next day, the nurse’s assistant woke up with chest pain, a fever, a headache and a backache so bad it reminded her of labor pain. She tested positive for COVID-19 a week later. “That was before we realized we actually had COVID cases in our nursing home,” said Silva, who works at the Queens Nassau Nursing Center and the Beacon Rehab and Nursing Center in New York. “We didn’t have the right personal SURWHFWLYH HTXLSPHQW DW ÀUVW µ About 75% of health care workers in
most cities are women. They are among the front-line workers most likely to have access to health insurance, although 7% lack it. And more than 8% live below the federal poverty line. In New York City, more than 76% of health care workers are people of color. At least 54 nurses have died of the coronavirus, according to the American Nurses Association. Silva returned to work after recovering. It’s been more than a month since she has hugged her two sons or her husband, who LV D EXLOGLQJ ÀUH VDIHW\ GLUHFWRU “We say we love each other daily and put our arms around our own selves in front of each other,” she said.
NURSES WEEK 2020
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
Best. Nurses. Ever. This year, Nurses Week holds an especially prominent place in our hearts as we thank those who give so much. Please join Providence Montana in thanking our nurses, today and every day, for their commitment to care for us all.
Montana.Providence.org
3
4
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
Emma’s House nurse a ‘spectacular’ healer Sarah Lindstrom
SEABORN LARSON seaborn.larson@missoulian.com
SARA DIGGINS Missoulian
Sarah Lindstrom, at her house in Stevensville, said she knew she wanted to help people. So she became a nurse.
Sarah Lindstrom didn’t have a career path lined out early on, but she knew as she entered college she wanted to help people. 1XUVLQJ VHHPHG WR ÀW WKDW ELOO “It was an impromptu decision, really,” she said. Since 2017, the Missoula native has been working at Emma’s House as a registered nurse forensic medical examiner, working directly with children after allegations of abuse. For children, that process means talking with law enforcement, Child and Family Services, a family advocate and sometimes more. Lindstrom, 28, then conducts a head-to-toe exam with the children and, alone, speaks with them about their health in a child-friendly environment. “I think my main goal is just reassuring children that despite what has happened to them, their bodies will be normal and healthy for a lifetime,” Lindstrom said. “I think that is special for me to help them heal that way.” Lindstrom doesn’t hold down just one
nursing job — she has three. Each week she works two days as a nurse with a primary care provider in the Bitterroot Valley, two days as an outpatient nurse educator for Marcus Daily Memorial Hospital, and one day at Emma’s House. Her Emma’s House colleague, Lisa DeMoss, said Lindstrom is “spectacular” in her work there. “She is not only warm and wonderful ZLWK SHRSOH EXW VKH·V MXVW YHU\ SURÀFLHQW and conscientious of what she does,” DeMoss said. “It’s the perfect combination for the perfect nurses.” When Lindstrom graduated in 2014 from Montana State University with her nursing degree in hand, she had taken WKH ÀUVW VWHS WRZDUG KHOSLQJ SHRSOH DV planned. Last week, she said the work still teaches her something each day. “My job at Emma’s House and nursing, in general, teaches me something every single day about how resilient and amazing humans can be,” Lindstrom said. “I, personally, found that very empowering in my own life.”
Nurse helps ICU patients get back to ‘the things that they love to do’ CAMERON EVANS cameron.evans@missoulian.com
Leigh Torcoletti
SARA DIGGINS Missoulian
Leigh Torcoletti always knew that she wanted to become a nurse because she wanted to work directly with patients and their families while assisting them in improving their health. “My favorite part of the job is that I get to take the time to get to know my patients and their families, and I’m able to assist them with whatever they’re facing during their hospital stay,” Torcoletti said. Torcoletti’s attention to both her patients in the intensive care unit at Providence St. Patrick Hospital and their families is exactly what stood out to Tami Johnson when she visited her aunt recovering from heart surgery under Torcoletti’s care. “She was part of a wonderful team who cared for her after her heart surgery didn’t go as well as planned,” said Johnson, who nominated Torcoletti. COVID-19 was beginning to rear its head in Montana in March and the hospital had begun limiting visitors when Johnson arrived. Despite the added stress of the
coronavirus, Torcoletti continued to provide kind, thoughtful care, Johnson said. “She was cheerful and gave compassionate updates all while everyone, including the staff, was feeling stress and fear of the outbreak,” Johnson said. “Leigh always had a smile for everyone and was kind to all the staff she interacted with as well when she needed their assistance.” Torcoletti said she’s motivated to help her patients recover so that “when they leave the hospital, they’re able to get back into the community and continue to do all the things that they love to do.” Born and raised in Missoula, Torcoletti said she loves to spend her free time hiking and skiing as well as traveling. Ultimately, she wants to share the credit with the other nurses, physicians and other health care members she works alongside. “I think this every day teamwork is extremely apparent right now because we are able to come together to navigate and support each other during this pandemic,” Torcoletti said.
Leigh Torcoletti works as a nurse in the intensive care unit at Providence St. Patrick Hospital.
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
2020
THANK YOU to our wonderful nurses for providing unparalleled service each and every day.
2651 South Avenue West | Missoula, Montana 59804 | 406-728-9162 | villagehealthcare.com
5
6
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
Laura Keating specializes in newborns, their families KIM BRIGGEMAN kbriggeman@missoulian.com
Laura Keating
BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian
Laura Keating is 17 years into a career in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Fifteen of them she flew on the NICU flight team.
It has been more than 15 years since Merrilyn Perritt’s family, on vacation in Missoula from South Carolina, suddenly grew by two. 7KH ÀUVW QHZFRPHU ZDV 3HUULWW·V VRQ born more than four months prematurely. +H EHFDPH WKH ÀUVW ZHHNHU WR VXUYLYH DW Community Medical Center and weighed 1 pound, 2.7 ounces. The second addition was Laura Keating, a nurse in Community’s neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Keating not only helped with that remarkable survival but volunteered four months later, on her own time and dime, to Á\ ZLWK WKH XQHDV\ SDUHQWV EDFN WR 0\UWOH Beach on a medical jet. “Laura knew how nervous I was and RIIHUHG WR Á\ ZLWK XV µ 3HUULWW ZURWH UHFHQWO\ “Fifteen years later we are still close. I consider her part of our family.” Keating is 17 years into a career in the 1,&8 )LIWHHQ RI WKHP VKH ÁHZ RQ WKH 1,&8 ÁLJKW WHDP 6KH DOVR ZRUNHG IRXU years in Providence St. Patrick Hospital’s new maternity wing. That’s a whole lot of intensive love. “There are some really hard times in there,” Keating said. “Ninety percent of my days are
really good and probably 10 percent of my days are hard and make you not take things for granted.” $ PRWKHU RI FKLOGUHQ LQ VHYHQWK ÀIWK DQG ÀUVW JUDGH .HDWLQJ LV PDUULHG WR 3KLOLS .HDWLQJ D 0LVVRXOD FLW\ ÀUHÀJKWHU <RX GRQ·W get much more essential then the two of them in the crush of COVID-19. “I love taking care of families and getting to see their little miracles grow up and go home, and being there with families during their real hard times,” said Keating, who grew up in Forsyth, went to nursing school at Montana State University in Bozeman and did her upper-division nurse training in Billings. The virus hasn’t changed the way the NICU nurses care for patients “other than masking for 12 straight hours, which we’re not used to,” she said. “We can allow only one parent in at a time, which is really hard because they’re families and these people have a very limited amount of time to be in there.” The Perritts still come to Missoula to visit, where Perritt’s sister and niece live. Laura and Merrilyn keep in touch on the phone. “I have read stories about Laura that other families have posted,” Perritt said in her nomination. “She is an amazing NICU nurse and person.”
Janet Gates comforts those at the end of life DAVID ERICKSON david.erickson@missoulian.com
Janet Gates
THOM BRIDGE/Independent Record
Janet Gates, a hospice nurse at St. Peter’s Health Hospice in Helena, could have retired years ago, but she’s still going strong at age 72. “I’ve always been uncomfortable talking about nursing in terms of ‘a calling,’ but I guess that’s what it is,” she said. “It’s what I’m supposed to do.” She provides end-of-life care and comfort. “End of life can be a great opportunity for patients and family to actually grow and heal and if, in some small way hospice care services can get them through this time, it’s incredibly satisfying and rewarding,” she said. There are nuances and complexities to the job, of course. “You have to learn that the experience belongs to the patient and the family, not yourself,” Gates explained. “So you walk the journey with them. You are a witness to the journey, but it belongs to them.” She’s learned a lot in her long career, especially about herself. “You have to be comfortable in your own self and be willing to feel the feelings because you do,” she said. “You’re sad, so you have to be comfortable in yourself.”
Gates worked in Missoula at Providence St. Patrick Hospital and Partners in Home Care for a long time before moving to rural Sanders County for many years. She started the hospice program there. Kathy Kostka, a friend, said Gates would always help friends in need. “Janet soon became the face of devoted home FDUH ÀHUFHO\ FRPPLWWHG WR DVVXULQJ WKH FRPIRUW RI WKRVH DW WKH ÀQDO VWDJH RI WKHLU OLYHV µ .RVWND VDLG “There are few in the area who were not touched by her presence in the life and death of a loved one. She has the ability to use her medical knowledge to calm the fears of patients and family members while showing personal compassion for their journey.” Kostka said Gates was “part of the village” that helped raise kids in her community. “Working in a very rural area is very rewarding,” Gates added. According to her, the key is to connect with each patient. “Listening is the other major part of it,” she said. “To hear the stories and to be witness and to be comfortable hearing people express their fears. You walk alongside and support them for sure.” In her free time, Gates said she enjoys spending time with her family.
Janet Gates, a hospice nurse at St. Peter’s Health Hospice in Helena, provides end-of-life care and comfort.
Nurses Week
For National Nurses and Hospital Weeks,
MAY 10, 2020
7
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Front: Sarah from Corvallis Family Medicine and Clinic Nurse Education. Front Row: Left to Right: Heather from EMS, Bruce from Environmental Services, Sharon from Medical Staff, Katherine from Medical Staff, Crystal from Primary Care Clinics, Vicki from Patient Access Services. Back Row: Left to Right: Bo from Medical Surgical Unit, Greg from Facilities, Larry from Rehabilitation.
“We are celebrating our community! You are heroic in our eyes. By the sacrifices you have made over the past weeks, it gave us time to create safe facilities for us to deliver care. In addition, you showered us in generosity with your words, treats, and donations. Because of your nominations, Sarah Lidstrom, Registered Nurse at Corvallis Family Medicine and Clinic Nurse Educator is a recipient of the Missoulian’s Nurses are the Heart of Health Award. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!”
Kathy Padilla, RN, Chief Nursing Officer
mdmh.org (406) 363-2211 • 1200 Westwood Drive, Hamilton, MT follow us on facebook
Quality Care Close to Home™
8
MAY 10, 2020
Nurses Week
Eric King finds calling helping people in ER King, said he was scared going into the hospital, but left feeling reassured. Eric King didn’t grow up in Hamilton “He made sure he kept me abreast dreaming about being a nurse. In fact, of results continually, answered all he barely even considered it until he was my questions and calmed my fears,” QHDUO\ \HDUV ROG %XW DIWHU VSHQGLQJ VR Erickson said in his nomination. “I have much time visiting the hospital with his father who was suffering from cancer, he been in ERs quite a lot this past year and realized it might be the place for him. know these folks have a lot on their plate “My dad felt more comfortable with a most of the time. But Eric went above male nurse, but they told him there just and beyond on mine and other patients weren’t very many. One of the nurses that day.” jokingly told me if I was looking for a career change, here you go,” King said. Having been on the receiving end A construction worker by trade, King of hospital visits for the majority of mulled it over and eventually packed up his adult life made it easier for him to his family and moved to Boise, Idaho, for nursing school. Now, three years into relate to patients, he said. He recalled times bringing his dad and wife to the his job as an emergency room nurse, he still relishes the opportunity to save lives hospital when the doctors’ and nurses’ every day. He said no other area of the compassion made all the difference, hospital can give you the amount of job including from some of the people he satisfaction as the emergency room. now works with every day. “People come in at their absolute “I’ve been down and out. I get how worst, and we have a chance to turn them around fast. People literally come traumatic the experience is, so I want to in dead, and we send them upstairs lighten it. A lot of those big experiences, alive,” he said. “In the ER, you don’t they’re not as catastrophic as they have to look back at the past year and appear in the moment. So if you have see the good you did, you get to see it a professional reminding you of that, it every day, minute by minute.” King is known by patients for his can really help.” ability to help people feel comfortable, For now, King eagerly awaits the end easing any fears they have, and taking of the COVID-19 pandemic, so he can the time to fully explain what’s going on with their tests and treatments, no matter shed the layers of protective gear and patients can see his smile and feel the how busy. humanity he tries to lend to each one. Carl Erickson, who nominated
Eric King
MATT NEUMAN matthew.neuman@missoulian.com
BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian
“In the ER, you don’t have to look back at the past year and see the good you did, you get to see it every day, minute by minute.”
Eric King, a registered nurse in the emergency room at Community Medical Center in Missoula, stands outside the hospital on April 23.
is celebrating our nurses!
for a Cau e e f f se Co
Show your badge and receive
10% OFF any hand-crafted beverage.* * Offer is available all day, everyday to anyone in the medical community.
Thank you to our entire medical community!
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
9
Karen Ayers advocates for, empowers patients in Seeley Lake CORY WALSH cory.walsh@missoulian.com
Karen Ayers
Missoula Health and Rehab would like to thank our nurses for the hard work and dedication provided to our patients. Vince, RDCO
Cheryl, RN
Alyssa, LPN
Rebecca, RDCO
Bev, LPN
Autumn, LPN
Doris, DNS
Karen, RN
Elliot, LPN
Sam, ADON
Marco,, RN
Gary, y, LPN
Ryland, RN Margaret, LPN Nikki, LPN Tracy, LPN Robert, RN
Skilled Nursing, Rehabilitation Therapy, Memory Support, Respite Stays, Hospice Services, Supplementary Care Options
3018 Rattlesnake Drive, Missoula, MT 59802 Get Directions • Tel: (406) 549-0988
SARA DIGGINS, Missoulian
Karen Ayers, a registered nurse and clinic coordinator at The Seeley Swan Health Center run by Partnership Health Center, originally came to Montana from her native upstate New York with intentions of getting into forestry. Now, she lives in an area surrounded by outdoor oSSRUWXQLWLHV OLNH KLNLQJ ÀVKLQJ DQG ERDWLQJ ZKLOH pursuing her love of working with patients. It started when she was 21 and got a job at Village Health Care assisted living facility. She was a housekeeper and found that she spent most of her time talking with the residents. “After working there, I really decided that that was where I needed to be.” She earned a bachelor of science in nursing at Montana State University, and spent 12 years working at Providence St. Patrick Hospital in medical surgery units, inpatient rehabilitation and more. After she and her husband started having children, they decided to live closer to a community than their place up Rock Creek, and made the move to Seeley Lake six years ago. At the health center, she helps perform Partnership’s mission to “serve the underserved” and “provide access for everyone,” she said. That means lots of time on
the phone with insurance companies seeking to get medications or procedures covered for her patients. Education is also an important part of her work. “When we inform patients about their health conditions and their medications, you really empower them, and then they become more involved and more interested in what’s going on with their health.” The area has a high population of snowbirds and older folks, her favorite people to work with. “I love hearing about their life experiences. They tend to be very respectful and kind,” she said. The dynamic of working in a small-town Montana community is different than Missoula, too. While she ORYHG 6W 3DW·V ´WKHUH·V GHÀQLWHO\ D GLIIHUHQW IRUP RI connection when you know you’re going to run into \RXU SDWLHQWV LQ WKH SRVW RIÀFH RU WKH JURFHU\ VWRUH DQG see them out and about. It brings it to a different level.” The community has weathered prior crises, too, such DV WKH ZLOGÀUH VHDVRQ RI ZKHQ WKH FOLQLF VWD\HG RSHQ DQG VHUYHG QRW MXVW UHVLGHQWV EXW ÀUH FUHZV “I think that what I’d want everyone to know, especially in this Seeley Lake community, is how much we appreciate the patients and the concern and the Karen Ayers works as a registered nurse and clinic coordinator at The Seeley Swan Health Center run by Partnership Health Center. kindness that they’re showing us during this really GLIÀFXOW WLPH µ
10
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
For Dorthy Burgess, nursing melds science, fitness KEILA SZPALLER keila.szpaller@missoulian.com
Dorothy Burgess
SARA DIGGINS Missoulian
Dorothy Burgess has worked for 25 years at the Family Medicine Center in Hamilton.
Dorothy Burgess likes science, and she likes being physically active. In her early 20s, she went to a doctor’s appointment and saw science and health rolled into one profession. That’s when she decided to become a QXUVH 1RZ \HDUV ODWHU VKH·V ZRUNHG LQ drug rehabilitation and detox, mental health, sports medicine, and family medicine, where she helped everyone from newborns to geriatrics. “It’s a great position, to be a nurse,” said Burgess, who studied at Chaffey College in southern California. “I would recommend it. It’s stressful and you work very hard, but it’s super rewarding.” The last 25 years, Burgess has worked at Family Medicine Center of the Bitterroot in +DPLOWRQ ÀUVW DV DQ RIÀFH QXUVH IRU RQH RI the doctors and later as the care management nurse. “I did all the ordering of supplies, medicines (and) vaccines. They promoted me to care management when the position became available, which I was very thankful for,” Burgess said. In care management, for example, she makes sure patients who come out of the
hospital are healing well. She also makes sure there’s high quality in reporting with insurance companies. “I’m loving it, and this is probably where I’ll stay, in care management,” Burgess said. Britany Keller, one of Burgess’ patients, nominated her for Nurses Week after getting treatment following a car accident: “She has been my coach, my cheerleader, and most importantly, my teammate … ,” Keller said in her nomination. “I may never recover from this. I may never soar above the mountains. But if I can spread my ‘wings’ and take any IRUP RI ÁLJKW , NQRZ WKDW 'RURWK\ KDV KDG a part of nurturing and promoting the wind beneath my ‘wings.’” The last few weeks, the pandemic has put nurses directly in the path of the novel coronavirus. Burgess said she appreciates the outpouring of public support, such as signs thanking nurses, and she’s proud her clinic established safety protocols. “It’s rewarding to know we are protecting our patients and staff to the best of our ability,” Burgess said.
Cindy Peters: Hospice work intimate, rewarding GWEN FLORIO gwen.florio@missoulian.com
Cindy Peters
SARA DIGGINS Missoulian
Talk with Cindy Peters for more than a few moments about her work with patients at the end of their lives, and words like “gratitude” come up repeatedly. Peters took a job with Hospice of Missoula in 2012 mainly to return to her hometown from Charleston, South Carolina, where she’d been working. “I had no idea what hospice was about,” she said. “Ultimately, what surprised me the most … it’s a pretty intimate form of nursing. You get to know people pretty quickly and intensely. I’m so grateful.” That intimacy extends not just to the relationship with the patient, but also with the person’s family, she said. “You have pretty strong, close relationships with families. They’ve communicated to me that it gives them comfort that I get to be there.” Indeed, said Scott Pankratz, who nominated Peters for the Nurses Week honor, “during the process of my father’s dying, Cindy Peters became a family member;
as we lost my dad, we gained Cindy.” “Throughout the course of two months, Cindy regularly texted me, sometimes after hours with updates on my dad’s condition,” Pankratz wrote in his nominating letter. “… When my father passed away, she gave me a hug, looked me in the eye and told me my dad was a playful and kind man, and that she really enjoyed being with him. Her job was done, and here she was giving me a last dose of soothing medicine that’s stayed with me since that day.” Caring for patients who aren’t going to get better could take an emotional toll. “I’ve heard statistically that hospice nurses have one of the highest rates of burnout, and I think there’s certainly the potential for that,” Peters said. She unwinds from the stresses of work by gardening and cooking. And, she said, “I’m fortunate to have two living, loving parents, who I get to live in the same town with.” In seven and a half years in hospice work, Peter said she has yet to experience burnout. “I really just love it.”
Cindy Peters works with patients and their families at Hospice of Missoula.
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
11
Lisa Harmon: ‘Nursing is on the front lines’ PATRICK REILLY patrick.reilly@missoulian.com
Lisa Harmon
BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian
7KLV 0D\ /LVD +DUPRQ ZLOO PDUN years in nursing. In that time, she said, “nursing has been a wonderful career. There’s just so many different avenues. You can work with children, and the elderly, and everyone in between.” Harmon spent years as an emergency URRP QXUVH DQG ÁLJKW QXUVH ZLWK Providence St. Patrick Hospital. Looking for a less physically demanding role, she decided to go into education, earning a master’s degree and then a doctorate. While teaching at the University of Great Falls (now the University of Providence) in 2015, she met Lynnette Savage, who nominated her for this Nurses Week issue. ´6KH WUXO\ H[HPSOLÀHV ZKDW D QXUVH should be,” she said of Harmon. “She’s just an outstanding educator and leader. Lisa Harmon, a nurse for 43 years, is the chair of the nursing program at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.
... She just is a thoroughly knowledgeable, intelligent and articulate person.” Harmon wrote her doctoral dissertation on culturally congruent care for Native American women with breast cancer, and has spent the last seven or eight years at Salish Kootenai College, where she chairs the nursing program. In that role, she enjoys helping tomorrow’s nurses “see what they can do DV QXUVHV WR LQÁXHQFH KHDOWK µ 7KDW UROH LV more important than ever, she said, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Nursing is on the front lines,” she said. “With their intellect and their advocacy for patients ... they can help inform future policy-making, because nurses are with patients all the time.” Harmon lives with her husband in Polson. When she’s not working, she enjoys kayaking, gardening and singing.
DURING NATIONAL NURSES’ WEEK
WE COMMEND ALL NURSES
Jessica Austin, RN Heart & Vascular
Mindy Bierwag, RN Outpatient Surgery
Maria Gurreri, RN Pediatric Infusion
Laura Keating, RN NICU
Eric King, RN Emergency
Tiffany Shanahan, RN NICU
To the nurses of Community Medical Center, we extend our gratitude for the excellent care you provide to every person, every day, from day one.
Congratulations to our nurses for being nominated as one of Missoula’s best.
12
MAY 10, 2020
Nurses Week
Adel Peña Jr. treats patients like family Adel Peña Jr.
LAURA SCHEER laura.scheer@missoulian.com
TOM BAUER, Missoulian
Adel Peña Jr. cares for patients at Village Health & Rehabilitation in Missoula.
Thank you, Missoula Nurses and all Essential Workers! A heartfelt thank you to Missoula’s finest who went above and beyond to keep our community running over the past several weeks. We are grateful for you all, every moment of every day. Your support, presence and dedication are so very much appreciated by all of us here at BeeHive Homes of Missoula!
406-543-0345
beehivehomes.com/location/missoula
From the Philippines to Dubai, Adel Peña Jr.’s nursing career has taken him around the world. This year’s winner of the popular vote for Missoulian’s Nurses Week nominations, Peña is caring today for patients at Village Health & Rehabilitation in Missoula and said he’s living out his American dream. Peña is known by his coworkers and patients as the nurse that smiles and sings, always carrying himself with a positive attitude. “The love he has for his residents is shown in how he bends down to speak with them, gives them hugs and reassurance,” said Annie Waylett, director of social services at Village +HDOWK 5HKDELOLWDWLRQ ´$QG KLV FRQÀGHQFH puts new residents at ease.” Peña said he’s only returning the kindness he’s felt from residents and colleagues alike. “I like working at the Village because of the warmth I receive from the residents, the people. Considering that I came from a different country, I’m very thankful for the generosity,” he said.
Because of the culture he grew up with in the Philippines, Peña said he is a natural caregiver. “We don’t have that many nursing homes in the Philippines because the majority of grandparents live with us. We take care of them at home and provide necessities,” he said. “Every time I’m going to work, I treat my residents as my grandparents or parents.” Making connections with his patients is important to him, and he makes an effort to learn about their history and life story. ´%HLQJ DGPLWWHG RU EHLQJ FRQÀQHG LQ D hospital or rehab center is not easy,” he said. “The connection that you establish with the SHUVRQ ZKR LV DFWXDOO\ LOO LV YHU\ VLJQLÀFDQW µ When he’s not working at Village Health & Rehabilitation, he’s studying full time, taking online courses through Walden University in Minneapolis to get his master’s of science in nursing, specializing as an adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner.
Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
13
Japan debuts robots at hotels for virus BANGKOK (AP) — Robot staff debuted at a Tokyo hotel used for mildly sick coronavirus patients under a new plan to free up beds at hospitals overburdened with more severe cases. Pepper, a talking robot, greets new guests at the lobby, while Whiz, a cleaning robot, operates in areas where patients pick up meals and other daily necessities to reduce infection risks for human staff. Pepper, wearing a white surgical mask, greeted Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike as she walked into the hotel during Friday’s demonstration. Pepper also reminds patients to check their temperature and rest well. Guests can also access health management applications on
computers and tablets to record their temperatures and symptoms. The robots, made by SoftBank Robotics, will also be deployed at other hotels rented by Tokyo’s metropolitan government for patients with no or mild symptoms. 6R IDU 7RN\R KDV VHFXUHG ÀYH hotels and aims to increase the number of rooms from the current 1,500 to 2,800. The hotels are also staffed by GRFWRUV DQG QXUVHV EXW RIÀFLDOV hope the robots can cheer up an otherwise lonely time for guests who are isolated in single rooms for their weekslong stay. Japan has FRQÀUPHG FDVHV ZLWK deaths, according to the health ministry.
Dorothy Burgess, LPN has been with our clinic since it opened in July, 2004. She has been a practicing LPN in the Bitterroot Valley with our medical team for over 20 years. Dorothy is a very conscientious Nurse and she is very focused on delivering quality patient care. In 2017, our clinic was selected to participate in CPC+ Track 2 (Comprehensive Primary Care Program). This program requires a highly competent and experienced nurse to assume the role of CPC Care Coordinator. As her Practice Administrator through the years, along with observing both her nursing skills and compassion for quality care, she was a natural fit for this position. She has excelled in this role and the program has been very successful, in large part due to Dorothy’s diligence and passion for her role as CPC Care Coordinator. I have worked in various roles in Health Care Administration for over 30 years and I say without reservation that Dorothy is highly deserving of this recognition.
330 North 10th Street, Suite A.,Hamilton, MT 406-363-3627 • familymedcenter.org
14
MAY 10, 2020
Nurses Week
Yankton native helps heal the healers
The LIGHT program helps participants understand burnout, take inventory of their SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — For Dr. own life and thrive in the fast-paced world Clarissa Barnes, COVID-19 has taken an of health care. already stressful job to new heights. Barnes has seen stress and burnout both Barnes, a Yankton native, works at Avera in urban and rural areas. She attended Johns McKennan Hospital & University Health Hopkins University School of Medicine and Center in Sioux Falls. South Dakota’s largest completed her residency at Johns Hopkins city has become one of the nation’s hot Hospital, both in Baltimore. She returned spots for the virus. to South Dakota, working with patients at “Because of COVID, I now spend Yankton and Pierre before moving to Sioux additional time getting suited up when I Falls. treat a patient,” she said. “When patients “We’ve been talking about burnout come in, they’re already scared. Now, they’re for a long time,” she said. “When you treated by someone whose face and body are ORRNHG DW PHQWDO KHDOWK ÀJXUHV IRU PHGLFDO covered.” professionals, physician burnout was running At Avera McKennan, she specializes in at 40 percent — and that was before the internal medicine. As a hospitalist, she works pandemic.” with acutely ill patients only while they are in As a physician herself, Barnes knew the hospital. Even with additional protective the toll that the profession often takes on clothing and gear, health care workers are colleagues. Still, she was stunned to learn constantly aware they could contract the how many physicians were resorting to virus. substance abuse and even taking their lives. The concerns aren’t limited to Sioux “At one of the large psychiatrist Falls. Avera Health System employees in a conferences, a presenter showed data ÀYH VWDWH UHJLRQ ³ LQFOXGLQJ <DQNWRQ ³ DUH indicating that physicians had a high rate ramped up to deal with an issue that doesn’t of suicide,” she said. “When the data was stop when their shift ends and they return presented, I remember, I was shocked, but home. then I thought about it and wasn’t all that “It’s a generally exhausting period for surprised.” health care providers,” Barnes told the “Part of what my crusade has focused on Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. is being able to normalize it and make it OK So who’s helping those who help the WR WDON DERXW LW LQ WKH ÀUVW SODFH µ VKH VDLG patients? The LIGHT program promotes wellness That’s where Barnes steps into the picture. and healthy relationships in a number of As part of her Avera work, she serves as ways: one-on-one consultations, couples medical director of the LIGHT program, a retreats for providers and their spouses, nationally recognized program that promotes along with executive and peer strategy well-being for medical providers and their coaching. VSRXVHV ZLWK IUHH DQG FRQÀGHQWLDO DFFHVV WR In addition, self-assessments help the resources. person identify signs of compassion fatigue, “LIGHT is unique to Avera in South depression, alcohol abuse, anxiety, bipolar Dakota,” she said. “It promotes work-life disorder, resiliency, suicide risk and trauma. balance and maintaining good health. But The program’s ultimate goal is to have it’s not for patients. Instead, it cares for the every provider experiencing wellness in every physicians, nurse practitioners and physician facet of their lives. assistants.” The goal has become increasingly more Barnes remains available whenever a GLIÀFXOW ZLWK &29,' %DUQHV DGPLWWHG colleague wants to meet with her, and the “It’s hard because you never know how service is offered through the Avera Health any individual is going to react. Everyone system and beyond. is a little bit different,” she said. “There is a “Sometimes, they just need to talk with whole lot more stress throughout the day. someone who can guide them to a workAnd you have (medical professionals) who life balance,” she said. “If the person needs worry about the safety of their own families. additional help, they can be directed to a They don’t want to make others sick when mental health professional.” they go home.” RANDY DOCKENDORF Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
Nursing Nurses Week
MAY 10, 2020
15
is a work of
Thank You, Nurses!
From your locally owned funeral homes Cremation & Burial Society of the Rockies
Garden City Funeral Home & Crematory
Sunset Memorial Funeral Home & Cemetery
2510 Spurgin Rd # B (406) 543-5595 cremationburialsocietyoftherockies.com
1705 W Broadway St (406) 543-4190 gardencityfh.com
7405 Mullan Rd (406) 549-2857 sunsetfuneralhomecemetery.com
COMMUNITY ISN’T DEFINED BY A MAP. IT’S DEFINED BY A COMMITMENT TO CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER.
WE STAND WITH OUR NURSES IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS MONTANA. WE’RE HERE FOR YOU — THROUGH IT ALL.