Presser Retires After Long Nursing Career
Years Of Caring
For 46 years, Patty Presser has provided comfort whether it was as a nurse in a hospital/clinic setting or through public health at the Roosevelt County Health Department.
“I really like to take people out of their distress and to a place where they feel more calm and feel better,” Presser said of her caring nature.
Last week, Presser celebrated her retirement at the health center where she worked for 19 years as both a nurse and administrator.
She explains her nursing career started at St. Vincent’s pediatrics and then she worked in Sumter, S.C., for three years.
The local native then returned to Montana to help treat patients at Trinity Hospital. The place had its own rewarding challenges. “There’s such a variety. You have to be be ready for anything,” Presser explained.
After moving to the Laurel, she took three years off from nursing “for good behavior,” to start raising her family. Presser loved being a stay-at-home mother, but she needed to return to nursing to pay the bills.
She started at Listerud Health Clinic in Wolf Point in 1997. During her time at the clinic, she started a diabetics education program.
“There’s such a need for education and management skills for diabetics,” Presser noted.
The work in nursing was rewarding for many reasons.
“You are ushered in at the very center of people’s most vulnerable moments,” Presser said. “You’re allowed to be here and be involved. That’s a privilege.”
She noted that nurses are there are births, deaths and other trials. “You’re just allowed to be at center stage,” Presser said.
Taking care of patients receiving treatment at intensive care was another area of service for her. “I liked to get them settled in and take away their pain,” Presser said. She also enjoyed the team work at the clinic between nurses, doctors, nurses assistants and the entire staff.
Presser made the career change to public health in 2007.
“Public health has its high points,” Presser said. “It’s still focused on health and medicine, but from the prospective of taking care of the community rather than the individual.’
She added, “Public health is complexed. It’s not easy. I’ve learned something every day for 19 and a half years.”
Presser is a proponent of vaccines. “I don’t see vaccines as religious or philosophical, but as scientifi c.”
Although seeing someone improve isn’t as immediate in public health as in a clinic setting, public health workers can definitely make a difference. One example is when infections arise that endanger other people. “You want a good team to stamp them out,” Presser of such situations. “Outbreaks are a terrifying time.”
When confronting an outbreak, officials need to make sure the patient is away from others, tell the population what to do, perform messaging and conduct labs.
The COVID epidemic was particularly a challenging time for public health. Much of the work was providing information to the people and figuring out the number of people with COVID.
For a period of nine years, Presser served as both the health department’s administrator and nurse. “I couldn’t handle all of it. That was too much because we couldn’t find a nurse.”
She was grateful that Jenny Fuller was hired as the public health director last summer, so Presser could concentrate as being the public health nurse.
“I hired myself a really good boss,” Presser laughed.
She will move to Kalispell for her retirement. She hopes to rest and take care of some medical concerns.
“I plan to take some deep breaths, look around and see what I can see,” Presser said.
She will miss her co-workers and her patients, especially the younger ones. “I love the kids when they come in. Even though we’re being mean by poking them. They energize me,” she explained.
Presser will also miss the many individuals that she met through nursing. “It’s really hard to leave this community. It’s always going to be home. It’s hard to move away from home,” Presser said.
