N
urses at West Park Hos-
pital play a key role in
putting patients and
their families at the center of
care.
There are more than 175
nurses at West Park and they
help create an environment of
caring, listening and education
that make a patient’s stay go
smoother. Their goal is to have
relationships that are built on
trust, compassion and profes-
sional respect.
“We’re focused on patient
satisfaction and improving their
overall quality of care,” Interim
Chief Clinical Officer Keith
Ungrund says. “During the last
two years we’ve addedmore staff
to better care for our patients.”
Becky Phillips has worked at
West Park for seven months and
currently works in the Acute and
Critical Care Unit. She’s been
a nurse three years. The Acute
Care and Critical Care Units
include patients who have had
surgery that requires an over-
night stay. The Acute Care and
Critical Care Units also care for
a variety of patients that are
admitted for medical illnesses.
“My favorite part of nursing
is helping someone when they’re
not at their best and giving
them comfort,” she says. “When
they’re better and we’re able to
send them home, it’s a good feel-
ing.”
She added that the nurses
are patient advocates who work
hard to know what a patient
needs and provide that to them.
The nurses on Acute Care
and Critical Care work closely
with the Hospitalists and pro-
vide a team approach in caring
for patients. This team approach
has improved the care of the
patients as well as patient satis-
faction.
The Surgical Services Depart-
ment of West Park Hospital
employs 30 nurses. All nurses
are certified in trauma care
(TNCC), advanced cardiac life
support (ACLS), and pediatric
advanced life support (PALS).
Surgical services includes many
specialties including general/
vascular surgery, orthopedic
surgery, neurosurgery/spine sur-
gery, ear/nose/throat, urology
and gynecology.
Director of Surgical Servic-
es, Lillie Ennist RN-CAPA has
been a nurse 40 years and has
been at West Park Hospital for
25 years.
“Anything you can schedule
as out-patient we do, including
things like endoscopies, stress
tests and infusion therapy,”
Ennist says.
Outpatient supervisor
Rebekah Montgomery has spent
Cody Progress Edition - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - F-5
Nurses play important part in patient care
West Park Hospital nurses and staff (front row, from left) Kirsten Beck, RN, Jennifer Ball, RN, Amber Rand, RN, Shyla Coleman, RN,
Lenna Zickefoosr, PCT, and Brian Cey, RN, (second row, from left) Jackie Strain, RN, Lillie Ennist, RN, Joanne Adkins, RN, Rebekah
Montgomery, RN, Sara Bailey, <RN, Shelly Braten, RN, Kari Garaaghty, RN, Deloris Fox, office coordinator, and Dustin Smith, RN.
Nurse Karen Warner (from left), Emergency Department Director Lynette Bars-
ness and nurse Cayenne Foot in the ER.
Nurse Brandi Wengert and director Dawn Phillips in the Women’s Health
Department.
Nancy Winkler, Elaine Alsop and Cheryl Ajax of out-patient wound care take
care of any wounds from a scratch to serious trauma.
Chief Clnical Officer Keith Ungrund and nurse Beckie Phillips in one of the
Acute Care and Critical Care rooms.
all three years of her nursing
career at WPH. She also did her
senior practicumat WPH.
“I love patient care and work-
ing with different people in a
team environment,” she says.
Jennifer Ball, RN-CRNI, grew
up in Cody and came back after
she graduated eight years ago.
“West ParkHospital is a great
place to work,” she says. “It’s
patient-centered care. In this
department I love the variety
and the fact that we’re continu-
ally learning new processes.”
In Outpatient, they provide
to the community many services
so patients can stay local for all
of their medical needs including
endoscopy, pain management,
pH/manometry studies (to diag-
nose acid reflux), stress tests and
cardiology procedures, infusions,
and all preoperative, intraopera-
tive and postoperative care.
The Surgical Services staff is
dedicated to compassionate and
professional care and strives for
excellence by promoting safety
and providing education while
delivering health care services
in a caring environment to the
community.
“In the Women’s Health
Department, we are focused on
providing family centered per-
sonal care to our patients and
the nurses are committed to this
goal,” director Dawn Phillips
says.
There are two nurses staffed
at all times with extra staff avail-
able as needed to support patient
care. The OB nurses have special-
ty training in fetal monitoring,
neonatal stabilization and resus-
citation. The nurses also have
experience in supportingmothers
who choose to breastfeed.
The Women’s Health Depart-
ment offers labor management
that promotes activity and other
alternatives such as aromathera-
py and the use of a Jacuzzi.
The nurses and physicians
work as a team to provide the
care the patients need includ-
ing natural childbirth, epidur-
als, C-sections and newborn
care. A state-of-the-art monitor-
ing system allows the nurses to
view important data from the
desk and the doctors can review
the data from their homes and
offices. Additionally, the staff
provides the same personal and
sensitive care to women admit-
ted to the department to recover
from surgical procedures such as
hysterectomies.
Brandi Wengert has worked
in Women’s Health for five years
and is one of the preceptors
that helps train new OB nurses.
Wengert loves working in Wom-
en’s Health and loves the one on
one with the patients.
She evaluates women in
labor and is there to help them
through the labor, celebrate the
birth and continues to care for
both the mother and the new-
born until they go home.
The emergency department
is staffed with two registered
nurses along with a patient care
tech. and a physician 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. The
highly skilled physicians and
nurses are trained providers of
advanced cardiac life support,
pediatric advanced life support,
neonatal resuscitation and basic
trauma life support.
Emergency Department
director, Lynette Barsness, RN,
BSN, has 31 years of nursing
experience and oversees the
department, which has 11 full
time nursing staff and five full
time physicians.
“We provide direct patient
care to emergency patients
whether they come in by ambu-
lance or walk in,” she said. “I
have a great team of nurses
and physicians I work with who
make my job easier, along with
top of the line equipment as well
as a state of the art facility. We
provide excellent patient care.”
In out-patient wound care,
nurses Nancy Winkler, Elaine
Alsop and Cheryl Ajax take care
of any type of wound from a
scratch to serious trauma.
“We see gun shots, bear maul-
ings, frostbite and even rashes,”
Winkler says.
She’s been a nurse for 23
years, with 19 at West Park Hos-
pital.
“It’s always a challenge,” she
says. “You have to be aware of
what’s going on at the cellular
level. Multiple things can affect
how a wound heals. You must
look at the whole person.”
Alsop has been a nurse
almost 50 years and came to
Cody in 1985.
“I enjoy taking care of
patients and helping them get
better,” she says.
Ajax has worked in wound
care for two years and has been a
nurse for 39 years.
“I’ve done everything but
OB/GYN,” she says. “I’m always
looking for different challenges
and this fulfills my professional
and personal needs.”
Because most of their
patients are long-term, they get
to known themwell.
“It’s a whole different way of
taking care of a patient,” Ajax
says. “With wound care you’re
taking care of people for months
and sometimes years.”
