We recently celebrated Nurses Week for 2019. Marlys Skoblik (upper left corner) is an example of the longevity and dedication of the 25 nurses employed at all Vista Prairie Communities. Marlys has been a nurse for more than 40 years. In the photo, she’s pictured with her nurse colleagues at Garnette Gardens in Redwood Falls, where she has served since 2012.  Together, these six nurses have 146 years of experience in caring for patients in a variety of settings.

Next to Marlys is Licensed Practical Nurse Amber Demuth and LPN Sandy Lund; (bottom left to right) Registered Nurse Courtney Rohlik, LPN Lynn Buckley, who manages Garnette Gardens Memory Care, and Registered Nurse Jenn Panitzke, who is Garnette’s Director of Health Services.

Marlys serves primarily in the 15-unit Memory Care area, where the community’s highest level of care takes place, and in the Care Suites. She describes how they ask the families of Memory Care residents to complete questionnaires to help learn what has been important in their loved ones’ lives. In the nine Care Suites residents can generally converse about their histories, but each has unique physical challenges.

“We assess everybody very individually with the ultimate goal of making sure that we can meet their needs,” Marlys added. “They have lived a long time and during all those years, they had experiences and they had relationships and they had everything that makes a life.  Just holding a hand, being with somebody, shows them they have value.”

She also emphasized the importance of getting to know residents’ families and how grateful they are for the compassionate care provided for their loved ones.

Our Organizational Director of Health Care, Melissa Plachecki, a 25-year nurse herself, summed up the profession well, “To answer the call of nursing is a true vocation. Few careers offer the holistic opportunities that nursing provides. To be a nurse is an honor and a privilege.”