by admin on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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Janet Norin, RN
Clinical Informatics Specialist
Trinity Bettendorf
Why did you choose this as your career? I wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl. I started out as a candy striper with the Red Cross and loved it.
What are the challenges and rewards you experience in your work? In my role as staffing coordinator I have challenges everyday as I assist units with afternoon/evening staffing issues and also help bed control place patients in the most appropriate setting given their diagnosis. My reward is that the patient gets the best outcome, every day, every time with adequate staffing.
What are your plans for the future? Retirement, of course, but I am too young. Even though I already have more than 30 years in nursing, I will continue to work for several more years.
How has the hospital supported your career? Trinity has been very supportive monetarily and with flexible scheduling while I obtained my BSN through Trinity College of Nursing and when I received my OCN certification. I am proud to be a Trinity employee!
About Janet Norin
Education: Lutheran Hospital School for Nurses and bachelor of science degree in nursing from Trinity College of Nursing & Heath Sciences
Years with hospital: 32 years
by admin on Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Doug Moffett was born in Keosauqua. His father was a ranger while the family lived at Nine Eagles State Park as Doug grew up. Doug learned a lot about nature and safety while living at the park and realized at an early age that he would like to be in the medical field in some capacity. Doug’s focus turned to emergency medicine as he became a First Responder after graduating high school and went on to earn his EMT-B and later his EMT-I.
Doug put his training to work part time in Leon at Decatur County Hospital (DCH) in 1994, while working full time at other jobs. He worked as an emergency medical technician (EMT) for the casino in Osceola and as head custodian at the high school in Leon. He became full-time at DCH in 2004, working well above and beyond his requirements as an EMT and helping other departments when needed.
In March 2011, DCH staff was called to the scene of a motor vehicle accident with seven people involved and serious injuries. Now as the fire chief in Leon and the surrounding community, Doug was preparing an old house to burn down for teaching purposes for the volunteer firefighters when the call came. Doug canceled those plans and volunteered to go to the scene and help with this accident. He managed four patients coming back to the hospital and took excellent care of them.
Doug also is involved in a lot of community activities and does volunteer teaching for fire prevention at schools, the sheriff’s department, Family Place (a child care facility) and Boy Scouts. He is a certified diver and does scuba diving for rescue and recovery. Doug was awarded the Above and Beyond Honor Award from Mercy Health System for the wonderful job he did at the March accident.
Doug continues to serve Decatur County by doing a lot of volunteer work for his neighborhood, such as mowing and snow removal for the elderly, and volunteers as an EMT at the youth rodeos. In so many ways, Doug’s hard work and dedication have made the community safer, healthier and more enjoyable. We are fortunate to have this Hospital Hero in our midst.
by Scott McIntyre on Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The innovative Undergraduate Rural Medicine Education and Development (URMED) program created four years ago in Storm Lake through a partnership between Buena Vista Regional Medical Center (BVRMC) and Buena Vista University (BVU) has reached another milestone.
Beginning this month, Lakes Regional Healthcare at Spirit Lake will join the network of hospitals participating in URMED, which also includes BVRMC, Humboldt Community Hospital, Loring Hospital in Sac City and Pocahontas Community Hospital. The increase in hospital participation also created an additional internship position in the program.
BVRMC provides experiential learning opportunities throughout the academic year for BVU students pursuing careers in medicine and other health care professions, says Dr. Richard Lampe, professor of biology who helped develop the URMED partnership. Lampe is also current chair of the BVRMC Board of Trustees.
The capstone of the URMED program is an intensive January internship for selected BVU pre-med students who have an interest in practicing rural medicine. Students compete for the January internship slots, which include $3,000 stipends to help defray the costs of applying to medical school.
The URMED program was designed as one possible solution to the impending national shortage of physicians and other health care practitioners in rural communities. URMED has attracted interest from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine as well as a national program that seeks to interest young people in health care careers, notes Lampe.
URMED program interns (in white coats, left to right) Sabrina Martinez, Cammy Matters, Whitney Nelson and Alex Davis are joined by Rob Colerick, CEO of Buena Vista Regional Medical Center.
While the URMED alumni have no obligation to return to the communities where they interned, BVU science faculty, and officials at BVRMC and the other participating hospitals stay in regular contact and build ongoing relationships with them. “We have already seen interest in several medical students in coming back to Storm Lake to practice,” notes Lampe. The URMED program is also attracting new students interested in health care careers to BVU, he notes.
Students selected for the 2012 URMED January internships are:
- Cammy Matters, a junior biology major from Humboldt
- Whitney Nelson, a junior biology and history double major from Audubon
- Alex Davis, a junior biology major from Webster City
- Sabrina Martinez, a non-traditional student from Storm Lake, who is completing her pre-med course requirements at BVU. A 2008 Columbia University graduate in political science, she is a former admissions representative and assistant director of admissions at BVU.
Matters, Nelson and Davis will each intern at BVRMC for two weeks and then one week at the hospitals in Humboldt, Sac City, or Pocahontas. Martinez will spend all three weeks of her internship at Lakes Regional Healthcare at Spirit Lake.
During their internships, the students will work alongside physicians and other health care practitioners to learn what it is like to interact with patients in hospital, surgery, emergency room and clinical settings. They can also attend lectures and continuing education programs for medical staff.
The participating hospitals and BVU, through donor support, provide the financial resources for the stipends. “This year we had nine very fine URMED applicants but could only fund the four internships,” notes Lampe. “If we had additional financial support and participation from other area hospitals we could grow the program to accommodate the interest that our BVU students are showing in rural medical careers.”
So far, six BVU graduates and two current students have completed URMED January internships. Two are now enrolled in medical schools and others are working in related fields and plan to reapply to med schools, or are in graduate programs.
Two 2009 BVU graduates, Kyle Glienke of Aurelia and James Alstott of Laurens, also completed internships at BVRMC that became the model for the URMED program, says Lampe. They are third-year medical students at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and were on campus in September to talk with URMED students about their experiences in medical school.
Mary Jo Clark
ER/Trauma Coordinator
Floyd Valley Hospital, Le Mars
Why did you choose this as your career? When I was 14 years old I saw a segment on the news about the intensive care unit of a nursery and I just knew that was I wanted to do when I grew up.
What are the challenges and rewards you experience in your work? The challenges are meeting the varying needs of the patients from newborns to geriatrics. Some patients come in with no medical knowledge and some with too much, some have an uncomplicated complaint and some have you baffled, and some have no money or resources and some have unlimited yet you need to treat them all the same. The rewards are being able to help the patient, solving their problems or getting to a specialist who can. I work in ER so I like seeing the unusual like people nailing their hand to the board, kids putting rocks in their nose, etc.
What are your plans for the future? I see myself being in this position for a long time. I would like to get my master’s degree and information technology is something that interests me and I may explore that in the future.
How has the hospital supported your career? I started here as a new graduate on the floor and they encouraged me to move up to first a charge nurse then nursing supervisor and now this position. Along the way I got married and have three active children and they have really worked with me so that my schedule would not conflict with family demands for which I am very grateful.
More About Mary Jo Clark
Education: Bachelor of science in nursing from Morningside College
Years with hospital: 16 years
by admin on Monday, December 5, 2011
Dr. Joseph Lohmuller, a trauma and general surgeon at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport and president of Davenport Surgical Group, PC, is an activist far beyond his role as a skilled surgeon. In 2010, he championed the effort to transform an unsightly gravel roof into a rooftop greenscape project that improved the view for patients on three inpatient floors at Genesis Medical Center’s East Rusholme Street campus. He felt surgical, cardiac and obstetric patients deserved a more therapeutic view for healing and made it his personal mission to raise funds and see the roof to completion. The rooftop is in full bloom today.
“While he may do his finest work as a surgeon in the operating room directly below the rooftop greenscape, I would contend he does his finest work as a compassionate physician in the patient rooms looking out onto the roof,” says Missy Gowey, executive director of the Genesis Health Services Foundation. “I have always been impressed with his skills and am now humbled by his passion for helping patients achieve wellness – physically, emotionally and spiritually.”
As the medical director of the Genesis trauma program, Dr. Lohmuller has worked to reduce trauma in many ways, from advocating traffic control cameras to participating in mock accident re-enactments before prom night to discourage impaired teenage drivers. He also was instrumental in Genesis offering free prom photos to all prom-goers who sign a pledge to be alcohol-free, to not be distracted drivers and to wear their seatbelts on prom night.
As past medical director for the Genesis Center for Breast Health, he has impacted the healing of hundreds of Quad Cities women who have faced breast cancer. “Dr. Lohmuller is the
Dr. Lohmuller meets with a patient during his annual medical mission trip to Peru.
driving force for our genetic clinic, which provides patients with a family history of breast cancer an opportunity to determine the risk that they or their daughters may have in developing the disease in the future,” says Cindy McGee, Manager of the Kenneth H. McKay M.D. Center for Breast Health.
Each summer, Dr. Lohmuller leads a medical mission trip to Peru, where he and a health care team of other Genesis professionals provide care, equipment and technology to patients at Hospital Goyeneche in the impoverished city of Arequipa. On this year’s trip, his team of hospital staff included Genesis CEO Doug Cropper.
