Our nurses play a central role

in the health care you receive at Pioneer Memorial Hospital .

This month, we’d like to highlight two “Health Matters.” One is from our Emergency Department and the other one concerns our nursing students.

First, Dr. Joshua Cook, medical director for the Emergency Department at Pioneer Memorial Hospital writes, “The physicians and hospital staff at Pioneer Memorial Hospital want to thank the outstanding nursing staff in the Pioneer Memorial Hospital Emergency Department for their steadfast devotion to making emergency care better for you and your family.

“During National Emergency Nurses week, Oct. 5 through 11, we look to our ED nurses as a tremendous community resource of professionals who work around the clock, every day of the week to make our community safer and healthier. Our emergency 

nurses are frequently the first line of patient care in our city and state emergency departments. Emergency nurses remain committed to providing the highest quality emergency care for their patients and are leaders in educating the public in the prevention and treatment of injury and illness.

“This year’s theme, ‘Emergency Nurses…Simply the Best!’ reflects the dedication of emergency nurses in the United States and around the world.

“Although we hope you and your family never require our services, the outstanding team of nurses and physicians at Pioneer Memorial Hospital Emergency Department are always here for you,” Cook concludes.

Continuing with news of nursing at PMH, Crook County can be proud to know about the students selected for the new distance learning program. When classes began in late September at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham , Ore. , three caregivers from Pioneer Memorial hospital were included. Certified nursing assistants Roxie Berthold and Talisa Cornelius, as well as laboratory assistant Nicole Wood , were selected to participate in the MHCC distance nursing education program. Their intensive 18-month course of study will extend through June 2010. This program, the N2K Nursing Capacity-Building Model, brings hospitals and colleges together in training new nurses for our caregiving team, an important niche to fill in Central Oregon .

 

The formal application process included transcripts from college work, as well as two interviews, one with the nursing leadership at PMH, the other with staff at MHCC. Our students also had to meet pre-requisites before acceptance into the MHCC program, which is in its first year.

Our students will earn an associate degree in nursing, and may then take board examinations to become registered nurses. Graduates of the community college program meet requirements to continue studies for a bachelor of science in nursing, if they desire. Cornelius is within one year of completing this degree.

Each of our three students has been applying to nursing programs for more than a year, and up to three years in two cases. Limits on the numbers of students that can be admitted and on the availability of classes has been a hurdle for each to overcome.

“I took all my pre-requisites in Bend at Central Oregon Community College and kept bugging people and asking 

about the distance learning classes,” Berthold said. Her story was echoed by Cornelius.

“I have worked really hard for three years to find my way into nursing school. I have a 3.9 GPA, all the pre-requisites, all the electives, and yet had not gotten into other programs at Oregon Health & Science University or the COCC program,” Cornelius said. “So with this program, I am living my dream.”

Cornelius has wanted to be a nurse since she was 10 years old. A lengthy illness and recovery in a hospital and experience with a nurse she did not like made her vow one day to be the nurse this person had not been. “I know I won’t save the world,” she said, “but I can make a difference here.”

Wood plans to continue working at PMH after she graduates. “I was very pleased to learn that I can perform almost all of the work here in Prineville,” she said. “There will be one term of clinical experience at St. Charles Bend, and some experience at Mosaic Medical [formerly Ochoco Community Clinic] in Prineville.”

Berthold said she was concerned at first that performing her studies in a small hospital would restrict her experiences. But two PMH registered nurses, Kathy Worlein and Sheila Nichols, both graduates of the 2006 COCC distance learning program, assured her that, if anything, the small hospital setting means she will get the experiences that she needs to complete her studies.

“I enjoy patient care, and I’m looking forward to staying involved in my home

 town,” Wood said. “At the end of my studies, to be able to give something back to them. It will be a more intensive kind of patient care [than my work in the lab]. Health care is a great opportunity for people.”

Note: the information in this article ran in The Central Oregonian, Prineville, Ore., as the column, Health Matters.