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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 protective equipment at first.” 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 is a building fire safety director. “We say we love each other daily and put our arms around our own selves in front of each other,” she said.
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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. Nursing seemed to fit that bill. “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 with people, but she’s just very proficient 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 the first step toward helping people, as 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.
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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. The first newcomer was Perritt’s son, born more than four months prematurely. He became the first 23-weeker to survive at 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 fly with the uneasy parents back to Myrtle Beach on a medical jet. “Laura knew how nervous I was and offered to fly with us,” Perritt wrote recently. “Fifteen years later we are still close. I consider her part of our family.” Keating is 17 years into a career in the NICU. Fifteen of them she flew on the NICU flight team. She also worked four 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.” A mother of children in seventh, fifth and first grade, Keating is married to Philip Keating, a Missoula city firefighter. You don’t 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 care, fiercely committed to assuring the comfort of those at the final stage of their lives,” Kostka said. “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.
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Eric King finds calling helping people in ER MATT NEUMAN matthew.neuman@missoulian.com
“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.”
BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian
Eric King didn’t grow up in Hamilton dreaming about being a nurse. In fact, he barely even considered it until he was nearly 38 years old. But after spending so much time visiting the hospital with his father who was suffering from cancer, he realized it might be the place for him. “My dad felt more comfortable with a male nurse, but they told him there just weren’t very many. One of the nurses jokingly told me if I was looking for a career change, here you go,” King said. A construction worker by trade, King mulled it over and eventually packed up his family and moved to Boise, Idaho, for nursing school. Now, three years into his job as an emergency room nurse, he still relishes the opportunity to save lives every day. He said no other area of the hospital can give you the amount of job satisfaction as the emergency room. “People come in at their absolute worst, and we have a chance to turn them around fast. People literally come in dead, and we send them upstairs alive,” he said. “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.” King is known by patients for his ability to help people feel comfortable, easing any fears they have, and taking the time to fully explain what’s going on with their tests and treatments, no matter how busy. Carl Erickson, who nominated
King, said he was scared going into the hospital, but left feeling reassured. “He made sure he kept me abreast of results continually, answered all my questions and calmed my fears,” Erickson said in his nomination. “I have been in ERs quite a lot this past year and know these folks have a lot on their plate most of the time. But Eric went above and beyond on mine and other patients that day.” Having been on the receiving end of hospital visits for the majority of his adult life made it easier for him to relate to patients, he said. He recalled times bringing his dad and wife to the hospital when the doctors’ and nurses’ compassion made all the difference, including from some of the people he now works with every day. “I’ve been down and out. I get how traumatic the experience is, so I want to lighten it. A lot of those big experiences, they’re not as catastrophic as they appear in the moment. So if you have a professional reminding you of that, it can really help.” For now, King eagerly awaits the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, so he can shed the layers of protective gear and patients can see his smile and feel the humanity he tries to lend to each one.
Eric King
Eric King, a registered nurse in the emergency room at Community Medical Center in Missoula, stands outside the hospital on April 23.
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Karen Ayers advocates for, empowers patients in Seeley Lake CORY WALSH cory.walsh@missoulian.com
Karen Ayers
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 opportunities, like hiking, fishing and boating, while 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 loved St. Pat’s, “there’s definitely a different form of connection when you know you’re going to run into your patients in the post office or the grocery store and see them out and about. It brings it to a different level.” The community has weathered prior crises, too, such as the wildfire season of 2017, when the clinic stayed open and served not just residents but fire crews. “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 difficult time.”
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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 nurse. Now, 33 years later, she’s worked in 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 Hamilton, first as an office nurse for one of 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 form of flight, I know that Dorothy has had 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.
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Lisa Harmon: ‘Nursing is on the front lines’ PATRICK REILLY patrick.reilly@missoulian.com
Lisa Harmon
BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian
This May, Lisa Harmon will mark 43 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 room nurse and flight nurse with 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. “She truly exemplifies what a nurse 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.
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... 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 as nurses to influence health.” That role is 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.
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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.
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 Health & Rehabilitation. “And his confidence 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. “Being admitted or being confined in a hospital or rehab center is not easy,” he said. “The connection that you establish with the person who is actually ill is very significant.” 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.
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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. So far, Tokyo has secured five hotels and aims to increase the number of rooms from the current 1,500 to 2,800. The hotels are also staffed by doctors and nurses, but officials hope the robots can cheer up an otherwise lonely time for guests who are isolated in single rooms for their weekslong stay. Japan has 14,281 confirmed cases, with 432 deaths, according to the health ministry.
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Yankton native helps heal the healers RANDY DOCKENDORF Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — For Dr. Clarissa Barnes, COVID-19 has taken an already stressful job to new heights. Barnes, a Yankton native, works at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center in Sioux Falls. South Dakota’s largest city has become one of the nation’s hot spots for the virus. “Because of COVID, I now spend additional time getting suited up when I treat a patient,” she said. “When patients come in, they’re already scared. Now, they’re treated by someone whose face and body are covered.” At Avera McKennan, she specializes in internal medicine. As a hospitalist, she works with acutely ill patients only while they are in the hospital. Even with additional protective clothing and gear, health care workers are constantly aware they could contract the virus. The concerns aren’t limited to Sioux Falls. Avera Health System employees in a five-state region — including Yankton — are ramped up to deal with an issue that doesn’t stop when their shift ends and they return home. “It’s a generally exhausting period for health care providers,” Barnes told the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. So who’s helping those who help the patients? That’s where Barnes steps into the picture. As part of her Avera work, she serves as medical director of the LIGHT program, a nationally recognized program that promotes well-being for medical providers and their spouses with free and confidential access to resources. “LIGHT is unique to Avera in South Dakota,” she said. “It promotes work-life balance and maintaining good health. But it’s not for patients. Instead, it cares for the physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.” Barnes remains available whenever a colleague wants to meet with her, and the service is offered through the Avera Health system and beyond. “Sometimes, they just need to talk with someone who can guide them to a worklife balance,” she said. “If the person needs additional help, they can be directed to a mental health professional.”
The LIGHT program helps participants understand burnout, take inventory of their own life and thrive in the fast-paced world of health care. Barnes has seen stress and burnout both in urban and rural areas. She attended Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, both in Baltimore. She returned to South Dakota, working with patients at Yankton and Pierre before moving to Sioux Falls. “We’ve been talking about burnout for a long time,” she said. “When you looked at mental health figures for medical professionals, physician burnout was running at 40 percent — and that was before the pandemic.” As a physician herself, Barnes knew the toll that the profession often takes on colleagues. Still, she was stunned to learn how many physicians were resorting to substance abuse and even taking their lives. “At one of the large psychiatrist conferences, a presenter showed data indicating that physicians had a high rate of suicide,” she said. “When the data was presented, I remember, I was shocked, but then I thought about it and wasn’t all that surprised.” “Part of what my crusade has focused on is being able to normalize it and make it OK to talk about it in the first place,” she said. The LIGHT program promotes wellness and healthy relationships in a number of ways: one-on-one consultations, couples retreats for providers and their spouses, along with executive and peer strategy coaching. In addition, self-assessments help the person identify signs of compassion fatigue, depression, alcohol abuse, anxiety, bipolar disorder, resiliency, suicide risk and trauma. The program’s ultimate goal is to have every provider experiencing wellness in every facet of their lives. The goal has become increasingly more difficult with COVID-19, Barnes admitted. “It’s hard because you never know how any individual is going to react. Everyone is a little bit different,” she said. “There is a whole lot more stress throughout the day. And you have (medical professionals) who worry about the safety of their own families. They don’t want to make others sick when they go home.”
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