 Did physical therapy work with you this morning? Yes, they did. They did. How's your arm and your leg? It's getting better. It is. Good. Are you having any pain right now, Jane? No. Good. Do you feel like your pain is pretty well managed here? Yeah, pretty much. I was just going to check your vital signs. Is that OK before you go to bed? Can you take a deep breath for me? One more? Great. Still ticking, huh? Still ticking. Just the most fulfilling thing is to know that at the end of the day, you've helped somebody. They just love having the nurses come right to their home. They become like family members to you. You get to see the impact that you have in people's lives. Been more than I could have imagined it would be from my past experience in the nursing world. This is the greatest generation. I like taking care of the greatest generation. It's important to me that they know that they're in secure hands. That they're here knowing I'm going to be taking care of everything is going to be OK. That's good. So another day of physical therapy. One more day closer to home. That's right. How are you today? Are you OK? Did you get a chance to go outside today? Here at the hospital, in our rural setting, we're responsible for all kinds of nursing. We do a lot of geriatric nursing because that's our clientele in this community. We have a large percentage of elderly in our community. A lot of things in your smaller community nursing home that might be diverged out in a larger community, we take care of everything here. So yes, you're going to need a lot of different skills to take care of everyone at once. The skills that you need to do home care, it's like you have to be a jack of all trades because you might have a patient that needs wound care. So there might be some wound back, some different equipment that you have to work with. You might be doing IV therapy teaching. A lot of teaching is we do in home care. We can take care of pediatric patients. We take care of people. We have some that are 100 years old. There's just a whole realm of a lot of different things you have to know. Life here is very interesting. It's very challenging. It changes from day to day. You use everything, every aspect of nursing that I learned about in college, way back when, is implemented here. We do have a lot of emergency situations where we get to actually use our skills and use our knowledge to do what's appropriate and best for the residents. They are outstanding. I've admired the nurses, how friendly they are and how they get along with each other in relation to different little tasks that they do. I think it's just a very ideal place to be. They're always very conscientious of any health change we had. When I first came in, they spotted the beginning of pneumonia and they jumped right on that and I got medication and I feel very safe here. We need these homes. We need the care we're getting. And it's always improvement to be made no matter where you live or who you are, you need that extra care. I've seen some of my friends and classmates, their parents come in here and they're near the end stages of life and their whole family's going through that together. I feel very honored and privileged to be a part of that, to be there when they're feeling most vulnerable in their lives, to help them prepare for what life is gonna be like after this stage. And through the hugs and thank yous, I think that we're doing a wonderful job here in our community, making people feel that I can count on my local medical facility. They're there for me. Glad to help you out, Ivan. Thank you very much. Thank you. I think we have probably the most wonderful doctors to work with of any place I've ever worked where we have such a collegial working atmosphere and they respect what I as a nurse bring to the table and they learn, it's a two-way street, we learn to trust each other. That's one of the really fun things about it is as an I and R nurse in a clinic managed and nurse managed setting, I have a lot of independence, but yet I still have the providers here so that if I feel there's something that needs to be addressed, it can be addressed. This gives me a good excuse to hold hands too. When I was in college, the buzzword was biopsychosocial and spiritual and long-term nursing encompasses all of that. You get to use all of those aspects of your nursing because people are here, they're here for longer periods of time, you get to know them, you get to know their families and I just think it's the best of the nursing world because of the population we're working with because of what we deal with with them and every aspect of nursing is covered here. So for someone to think it might not be challenging or interesting here, that's just not true. It's a great place to work, a great environment. I'm so satisfied with what I'm doing. The reason is I think the elderly people, they are a valuable part of our society and in their past life, they have worked so hard, they have sacrificed their lives for us to get what we are getting today. Whatever we are enjoying today, that is because of all the hard work they have put in. Another great thing about nursing homes is we get residents here that come in for therapy and we have a wonderful therapy program and we get to actually send them home. We can make a warm welcome, inviting home that our residents wanna share with their families. We can smile, we can laugh, it doesn't have to be like a hospital. Fun to come to work and see them smiling and happy knowing that you're there. I love the stories, I love the patience, I love the richness that they bring to my life that I wouldn't necessarily have thought. They become your friends and they'll say to me, I always feel so much better after I come here and talk to you or they'll give me a hug and they'll cry and they'll say thank you for listening to me and so I feel that's something that I'm able to do in my job here that some of the nurses that work with the providers don't have the time to do because they're on to the next one in order to keep everything flowing smoothly. I think the thing that helps me keep going the most is the satisfaction you get from the interaction with the people, getting to know the residents as compared to a short-term hospital stay. You get to actually know them and know their families and the interesting things that make them who they are. We have some pretty lively conversations and I have found nicknames for quite a few of the people. After I ask a few questions, I know a few things about them and I can pick out a nickname. They're very nice to me, really care about us and not hear we miss them. I know people care. I know they treat me well. They help me with anything that I ask them to. I think they're good. You know, it is very rewarding when you're going, you know, you've talked to somebody or you have a family member call you and say, wow, you know, I'm so glad you were there to help take care of mom or you're, sometimes it's even at a funeral service or you know, a family service and they're saying, you know, gee, I want to thank Doreen for you know, helping us out so much and it's like, wow, we really did make a difference in that person's lives and it really is rewarding to hear that. You'll oftentimes get thank you cards after a resident has passed from their families, just letting you know that they really appreciated everything that you did for their loved one. You do become friends, you do fall in love with these people and they're just amazing and they do bring joy to our lives and they do have very much have a purpose. They teach me dignity, they teach me humility, they teach me gratitude. You know, a lot of times they say, you know, I wonder why I'm still here, I'm not good for anything, I don't do any good and I just tell them, you know, maybe your purpose is for me to get to know you. While interacting with the residents, I get to know them, their personalities, what kind of lives they would have led, what kind of families they would have raised, how much hardship they would have gone through, the ups and downs in their life, all the depression period here in America, you know, which I can only read in books and these residents to me are open live books that can bring all those experiences to me and I think that makes me grow. That's my bonus. They're just a joy. They have taught us so many things. They're the ones that have shaped the lives and how we live today. I know many of them, I'd say over 95% of the clientele that comes through the hospital, I know, I'm related to, I'm the best friend of their children. So it's important to me that they know that they're in secure hands. Especially in the end times of life, you need to have your self-esteem built up and to know that your life is important and it was important and that there's always going to be someone who will remember you. And so, you know, that's an important gift to be able to give to them and it's important gift that they, when they allow to share that with you. They teach me something every day. I've been doing this, like I said, for 37 years and every day I still learn something new from them. And when you work with people, that's the great thing is that it can change day to day, hour to hour. When I worked with students, I always said, you know, the patient doesn't need to necessarily know that you're assessing them, but from the moment you see them, you know, are they smiling today? Are they saying they're having a good day? What is their skin color? You know, are they breathing faster than normal? There's just so many things that you just are absorbing and that's one of the things in this job that I love is because I see them so often that I kind of know and it's even things that I'm not always conscious of, but when I'm walking them back from the waiting room and if I notice that one seems to be more, having more labor, breathing, you know, and I'll say you sound a little short of breath today, is it worse than usual? I think when you work with the elderly and you get to know them so well, it's like knowing a family member, you can anticipate their needs more as opposed to an acute setting. So being able to read your patients in that way from that relationship you develop is an important skill set in and of itself. They come in with a complex usual list of diagnoses. They have not just one or two, they have multiple diagnoses that they've obtained throughout their whole lives. Some that provide a very difficult way of life for them, breathing, mobility, they may be on lots of medications and the timing of those medications is very difficult for them to manage on their own. So here we try to help them. How can we make it so that you're still independent in your home, yet you're following what your doctor has ordered? Can you take a deep breath for me? It offers a very wide experience. Anything can come through that door and we have to be prepared to handle any crisis that comes in. And that can be heart attacks, accidents, someone with a common cold, a persistent cough, but we're there to handle all of those as a team here at the hospital. We're here today as quiet. Quiet today. I feel there'll always be a need for home care, continuing on and on and on and growing because people don't wanna be in the hospital, they don't wanna keep them there, but they do need help in being taught how to take care of themselves at home. So I just see it being a very good field to be in and to help patients. For me, I always felt that I was called to be a nurse and one of the things that I've learned is there's room in nursing for everybody. Don't just tie yourself into one area in the beginning, get some experience to see which area it is you really, really do have a passion for. Everybody is not cut out to be a geriatric nurse either, but it is really a wonderful field to help people. Yeah, it's vital that young people are getting into this profession and coming in with the newest information and the newest skills because you're going to be utilizing those and that's what people are going to need. I would tell them just to examine their relationship with their grandparents, you know, that when I think of my grandparents or family, I just get that warm feeling and I think most people do with your grandparents. It's a warm feeling. You like to be around them. Why not work somewhere where you're going to have that warm feeling and you're going to like it? I just think everybody should come try it or even volunteer in the nursing home, see if they like it. There's been so many people that come and say I cannot believe how happy I am here and that's what we want. It's accommodating for my family because I can go out and see patients while my children are at school and I can just be out and about doing my job and, you know, I have flexible hours not where you don't have to work a shift but when I got into home care, I've taken care of so many different kinds of patients like little babies all the way up to, my oldest patient was 106. At all. Yeah, my oldest patient was 106. I'm over 60. I enjoy working in a small town or rural area because of getting to know your clients or your patients really well and it just seems like, you know, you can see them in church a month later and they're like, oh, that was my nurse. She took care of me and they can come up and tell you I'm doing so much better now and, you know, seeing those people out in the community after you've taken care of them is a really good thing. The reason that I really like working in a small community, I like dealing with the people that I know. I've grown up with all these people. I was born and raised here in this community and my husband, Lenai, lived just in a smaller community just 15 miles away and it's just wonderful knowing all these people and that I'm here to help take care of them. I don't want people to feel scared when they come here. I'm dealing with them sometimes when it's a life altering or changing time in their lives and I wanna be able to make it as painless as I possibly can. I love small towns. You know who lives here and everyone cares about each other here. You know, it's just, it's like a family. A small town is like a family. I plan on raising a family here. I actually have a five-year-old. She'll be six in November and I love sending her to school in a small town where I know all the teachers and I know all of her classmates and it's wonderful. I came back to Mayville so we could live in a smaller community. We want our children to go to a smaller school and you have the added benefit of being able to be an integral part of the community, getting to work with several generations of people. You get to work with someone's parents and grandparents and you get to know all of the different generations of the family together, so it's kind of fun. It's like being part of the community, working in a small area like this. I'm a gerontological nurse in North Dakota. I make a difference in people's lives. I'm a geriatric nurse in the state of North Dakota and these patients make a difference in my life. I'm a gerontological nurse in North Dakota and I make a difference in people's lives. I am a nurse in North Dakota working in a long-term care facility and I know that I can make a difference in my resident's lives. I'm a gerontological nurse in North Dakota. I make a difference in people's lives. I am a home care nurse in North Dakota and I love doing my job. I love being a home care nurse. I work in long-term care and I make a difference in people's lives. I'm a long-term care nurse in North Dakota and I make a difference in people's lives. I'm a nurse who works in long-term care in North Dakota and I make a difference in people's lives. I'm a nurse in North Dakota that takes care of older patients and it's been one of the best parts of my nursing career.