RAPID CITY, S.D. — Dedicated, compassionate, caring – these are some attributes that come to mind when you think of a nurse.
Leanna Basham, an R.N. in Labor & Delivery at Monument Health Rapid City, says, “I think at the end of the day you have to have passion…I mean it ranges…I’m helping to bring babies into the world all the way nurses that are working in long term care facilities and helping people with their last moments, so I just think you have to have so much empathy and so much compassion for people because at the end of the day, we are all human and we are all there to care for each other and I think we just get to do it from a medical stand point.”
The pandemic brought a whole new set of challenges to the profession and when visitors were limited, the nursing staff became the primary support for many patients.
Basham says, “Everyone else was staying home and we had to come to work and it was so much unknown- we just had to all come together to take care of our community.”
Basham has been a nurse for about four years and says it’s more than just a paycheck is a living passion.
“I absolutely love labor and delivery just the challenges it brings, just to be a part of people’s special day whatever that may look like is just so rewarding and humbling to for people to allow us to be in that very intimate time with them. I hope the community feels the live that we have for them because you wouldn’t keep coming to work everyday if you didn’t,” says Basham.
At Monument, appreciating the nursing caregivers is a year-round focus. Basham is also a part of the Professional Development Council, which honors nurses with awards, giving out prizes, organizing fun activities, having nursing-focused vendor fairs, providing yummy food, and more.
Bahsam adds that when the pandemic hit, the support from the community was appreciated, “To come to work when you were kind of fearful, what is the day going to look like what does COVID even look like and to come in and their are signs all in from of the hospital you know just saying thank you for us, for what we do and I can’t speak highly enough for the nurses that we have in this organization that came together to take care of our community so I hope the community feels the live that we have for them because you wouldn’t keep coming to work everyday if you didn’t.”
Looking for more news and information? NewsCenter1 Media Group has you covered go to NC1.TV today for all of your Western South Dakota and Wyoming news today.
