Nurse Janet

To those who may not know, I have been going to school over the last 4 years to get a degree as a Registered Nurse.  Why you ask?  In 1983 I started WORC and am very committed to this organization, so I have no plans to leave.  My purpose is to enhance my skills for the people we support.  We are seeing more individuals with developmental disabilities needing medical care.  There is one person we support who is on a ventilator and receives nursing care 24 hours per day.  As our population ages, there will be more individuals wanting to stay in their homes and will be receiving Home Health support.  All these factors inspired me to get yet another degree (I have a BSE in Special Education and MS in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling) in the medical field.  As an RN, I will be able to provide private duty nursing care for some individuals and will be looking at how we can incorporate home health services for people with disabilities and seniors.  Most of the nursing I will do over the next year will be outside of WORC time (OK, I admit it, I LOVE TO WORK!!), but eventually we are looking at the future and how to incorporate the potential upcoming “Family Care” model that may dictate long term care for people with developmental disabilities, mental health, physical disabilities and elderly.  We don't know what will be the future funding for people with developmental disabilities, but I want to be sure that WORC will be in the lead with innovative, cost effective, creative solutions that will maintain quality staffing and our financial survival as an agency.  If you want to learn more about Family Care, you can go to the State of Wisconsin website and it will explain how it is being implemented in other counties.  The Governor expressed interest in having this model used across all the state for providing “long term care”. It is a medical model, thus the added purpose in my having a degree as a Registered Nurse. 

It has truly been a journey of learning and I am honored to be a part of the healing profession. This new knowledge has given me a renewed commitment to the health and well being of those we support,our staff and family. I graduated on May 20th and spoke as the student representative for our class. I want to thank the staff at WORC who helped support me in this effort, and I especially want to thank Melanie Dinges, Dawn Galloway, Sheila Beahm and Amy Estervig who have taken over many of the administrative tasks so that I could complete this degree.  ~Janet Estervig