Author: Stephany Chalberg

On the second floor in the south tower of Monument Health Rapid City Hospital, near the Emergency Department elevators, there is a tiny alcove. Empty and unremarkable most times of the year, this little area has this summer been the temporary home of some noteworthy guests–plants. 

Cat Hintz, RN, and Savanna Sewell, RN, both in the Nurse Residency Program in the Heart and Vascular Unit, brought in these plants to see if it would help improve the mood of people who come to sit in this second floor elevator vestibule.

“At the very beginning of residency, we were told that we would be doing an evidence-based project. And that’s when we had the idea to focus on eco-therapy or plant therapy, to see if it benefits our staff, patients and everyone else,” Cat says. Her and Savanna’s mutual experience as plant parents–Cat has 11 plants at home, Savanna, has 7–led to their partnership and has guided their thinking about creating this refuge of sorts within their department. “When you’re feeling down and you don’t have any place to go, usually you want to get outside, right? Why? It’s because there’s life. There’s living things. This is kind of the equivalent of that, but inside,” says Cat.

Local businesses Jolly Lane Greenhouse and The Plant Smyth loaned Cat and Savanna plants to allow their project to run from June 24 to August 24. The nurses named  it “Rise and Sunshine.” 

“Plants just add color to your life. We thought that with these big windows and all the sunshine that comes in through the day, it would be an awesome spot for plants to thrive, and also for staff and whoever else wanders over here to spend some time in this uplifting environment,” explains Savanna. “So that’s the reason for the name, to ‘rise up and come join the sunshine’ with the plants and feel alive again.”

Cat and Savanna even come in on their days off to care for these plants. The process is similar to how they care for a patient on their rounds: checking on their status and mood, meeting their needs, improving conditions to the best of their ability. It’s reflective of the role Monument Health plays in nurturing Cat and Savanna as caregivers and supporting their growth as nurses.

To avoid any possible allergen factor, the nurses focused on acquiring plants that don’t flower. “We’ve been using air-purifying, mold-reducing hypoallergenic plants for anybody who might have allergies. The plants here are pothos, philodendrons, palms, snake plants, spider plants, they’re all plants that are supposed to help purify the air,” says Cat, Her personal favorite plant in the project is a split-leaf palm, while Savanna prefers prayer plants. “Some of them are purple and green. So it adds just a little bit more color when we’re limited to non-blooming plants. We also have these beautiful money trees (Guiana chestnut). Nice and green and tall,” she says. The small trees sport a curiously braided trunk and are called money trees because there is a legend that if you keep one thriving, you will be rewarded with financial abundance. 

The project, however, isn’t an exercise in mere aesthetics; there is an evaluation component to the project, as Monument Health caregivers are asked to self-report any changes in their feelings. “We’re having the staff write their mood on a scale from 1 to 10 before they come in to sit with the plants and then sit however long they wish, and then fill out that same survey and see if it improved,” says Cat.

“So far, the staff has been absolutely loving it, even if they’re just coming over here and taking a minute to just stand in the sunshine and just be in this environment, take a few deep breaths, kind of reorient themselves. A lot of people are saying that it’s helping them get through their workday,” Savanna.

Cat and Savanna are nurses just blossoming into their careers, but they find the plants to be fairly unfussy as patients. “Each plant has different needs. Some plants like really wet soil and some plants like dry soil. Thankfully, with these plants, you water the soil when it’s dry, and then you let it be,” Cat explains. Adds Savanna: “They’re very forgiving, which I like.” 

Started on June 24, the Rise and Sunshine project does have an approaching end date. “We have two months to collect the data that we’ve collected and organize it and then we’ll be presenting it at the end of our nurse residency,” says Cat. After August 24, the plants will be returned to their nurseries, where they will go on sale to find new homes.

Story: Kory Lanphear
Photos: Robert Slocum

 

Aug. 6, 2024 (Sturgis, S.D.) – Each August, The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally comes roaring through and, in its 84 years, it has evolved to mark the end of the summer season for many in the Black Hills. For Monument Health Sturgis Hospital and Clinic, the Rally also marks what’s become an unusual seasonal event for Charles Lewis, D.O.: his annual “final” rally.

You see, Dr. Lewis has twice announced his intention to retire from his position as a primary care physician at Sturgis Hospital, only to then twice unretire, albeit gradually and quietly. “He didn’t plan on being here for this Rally or the last one or the one before that. He had been talking about retirement forever, but I think he couldn’t let go of it. Because he’s had a long career here,” says Rikki Plaggemeyer, Nurse Manager at Sturgis Hospital. His staff has chosen the Rally as a fitting touchstone for his nowyearly “unretirements.” And for four years running, Dr. Lewis has bedeviled his own retirement plans. He just keeps showing up to work.

Last year, it finally happened. Well, technically. He officially retired in March of 2023. There was even a party with cake and gifts. But then he returned as a locum physician in the Emergency Department and hospital. But he was adamant about sitting out the Rally. “He said, ‘This is actually my last rally.’ And we gave him all sorts of grief last year, and he was pretty adamant last year like, ‘Nope, I’m not coming back. This is really it this year,’” says Dr. Lewis’s colleague–and daughter–Sarah Lewis, D.O., But then he picked up some shifts. And now he’s doing it again this year. And so his colleagues have taken to naming this time of year “Dr. Lewis’s Annual Last Rally.” 2024 Rally marks The 4th Annual Last Rally of
Dr. Lewis.

That Dr. Lewis is an important figure around the hospital is without question. His legend as a stoically wise mentor, a lovably cantankerous father figure and an unwavering advocate for his co-physicians and caregivers is firmly solidified. His legacy seemingly goes beyond time out of mind. Says Rikki: “I’ve been here 26 years. Dr. Lewis has been here longer than me. For maybe forty years.” Dr. Lewis’s colleague, Joy Mueller, M.D., says that Dr. Lewis was at Sturgis Hospital when her mother worked there as a nurse for a brief stint. Dr. Mueller was two years old at the time. For the record, 2024 is Dr. Lewis’s 40th year according to Dr. Sarah Lewis.

This year, however, things are subtly different as Dr. Lewis has, perhaps symbolically, relinquished a number of his responsibilities, handing them off to other colleagues such as Dr. Mueller, his successor as Sturgis Hospital’s Medical Director. There is also the matter of his daughter, Dr. Sarah Lewis, taking over his practice, which she now has.

To mark this year’s Rally there are even T-shirts. The shirts depict a youthful Dr. Lewis sporting his signature mustache, and a festive Hawaiian shirt as he often does while working his Rally shifts. The words, “4th Annual Last Rally” are stenciled next to the illustration of his face. It is bittersweet, though. Not just for Dr. Lewis, but also for the other caregivers and physicians at Sturgis Hospital. Much of the ongoing philosophy of care here was devised and implemented, in part, by Dr. Lewis. He is popular, steadfast and, “He’s done a really good job establishing a strong foundation,” as Dr. Mueller puts it. Plus: “He just practices damn good medicine.”

But for all of his importance to the Sturgis Hospital ecosystem, he tends to remain lowkey and sometimes has an amusingly vexatious habit of simply vanishing–even from his own retirement parties–when the attention gets too much, according to Rikki. And she doesn’t think this year will be any different. “He’s always been known for leaving the E.R. quietly and not telling you where he’s going, or not saying goodbye when hanging up the phone. So I fully expect him to do that.”

Or will he? Dr. Lewis the younger isn’t ruling out a Fifth Annual Last Rally. “I guess we’ll see. Maybe I’m wrong. He was pretty set last year that he absolutely was not going to come back,” she says. Then again, “He thought we would practice together from August of ‘22 to March of ‘23, and then he would fade off into the distance. But he’s persisted.”

Story by: Kory Lanphear

 

 

Having previously worked in schools as an office worker and in the classroom, new Monument Health Patient Access Specialist Brenda Trandahl didn’t have experience in the health care industry, but it was always something she’d been curious about. 

So when she heard there was a weekly Career Connections Tuesdays hiring event for Monument Health coming up, she made sure to get there early. But she didn’t expect that she’d be interviewed for a job, right there, on the spot. “They got my information, and talked to me about what type of job I was interested in. And then told me that somebody would be right with me for an interview,” Brenda says.

“If you have somebody that’s on your schedule to interview a week from now, a lot can happen. They could get another job offer,” says Shana Theilmann, Brenda’s Supervisor in Admissions Services at Monument Health Rapid City Hospital. “So it’s really nice to be able to go to these hiring events, then you get to talk to them and make your decision. They can get a job offer usually by the next day, instead of waiting a week and doing that process.” 

Between the time Brenda walked through the doors at the hiring event and her first day of work, just a mere week and a half had passed. 

Rory Sturm, another of Brenda’s Supervisors, says medical experience is preferred, but is absolutely not a necessity.  “Just a really good attitude and a willingness to learn is what we need,” he explains. 

Since the weekly hiring events began in December 2023, 75 job offers have been extended. Attendees get a swag bag and maybe a chance to interview for more than one job. In fact, Brenda was interviewed for three different positions at Monument Health on the same day.

New hires can expect to further their careers at Monument Health. “Once the employee gets exposure to the hospital environment, they might want to try something else, like coding or billing. And then we see how we can help them grow in that aspect,” says Shana.

Career Connection Tuesdays are held every Tuesday from 2:00-4:00 PM at the Rapid City Hospital Turbine location, 1400 Turbine Drive Door 1.

For more, visit: monument.health/events.

Story: Kory Lanphear

Photo: Bob Slocum

Education is a valuable tool for both current and future caregivers. Monument Health is proud to sponsor scholars each year through the Build Dakota Scholarship Fund. Started in 2015, Build Dakota is a program providing free education for qualifying students seeking skills education at South Dakota technical colleges. 

In 2024, Monument Health sponsored 85 recipients of the Build Dakota Scholarship Fund. This fall, 66 of those students will start their journey towards a career in health care at Western Dakota Tech in Rapid City. On June 27, Western Dakota Tech hosted an athletic scholarship-style signing day for the next cohort. These students will be seeking degrees in the disciplines of Registered Nursing, Licensed Practical Nursing, Surgical Technology & Medical Lab Sciences.

In 2023 Monument Health awarded 47 students with the same honor. Joanna Wiseman, talent acquisition and marketing specialist at Monument Health says that Monument Health pays for half of the schooling and the state of South Dakota picks the rest of the tab. According to the Build Dakota website, graduates of South Dakota’s technical college have a 98-100% placement rate.

Monument Health is dedicated to growing a workforce to care for our patients, and assist our physicians, nurses and to recruit caregivers to fill critical roles within our clinics and hospitals. Monument Health is proud to sponsor students at four technical colleges through Build Dakota: Western Dakota Tech in Rapid City, Southeast Technical College in Sioux Falls, Mitchell Tech in Mitchell and Lake Area Technical College in Watertown.