Health

Veterans Memorial Hospital Waukon and Postville Clinics welcome Nurse Practitioner Minji Na, who will be joining the practice January 8. Minji has been practicing as a family nurse practitioner for Mayo Clinic Health Systems in Albert Lea and Austin, MN in family medicine and urgent care the last two years.

When Minji was in Nurse Practitioner school, she did her clinical rotations with Dr. Dave Schwartz. She states, “I really appreciated him and the staff, and especially the atmosphere at Veterans Memorial Hospital. I knew I wanted to be a part of their team someday!”

Minji was born in South Korea, moving to the United States when she was five years old. After living in New Jersey and Virginia, her family settled in Decorah. Minji attended NICC for her RN degree, Western Governors University for her Bachelors in Nursing and the Family Nurse Practitioner Program with Purdue University Global.

There’s still time to receive the flu and COVID vaccines. A flu vaccine is the best way to help protect yourself and your loved ones against flu and its potentially serious outcomes.  A flu shot can safely help prevent the flu and lessen flu symptoms if you do get sick. A flu shot also can help protect your baby from flu for several months after birth.

Every year flu puts thousands of children in the hospital. Getting your child a flu vaccine can lessen flu’s more serious symptoms - reducing the risk of serious illness and flu-related hospitalization if they do get sick.

The flu and COVID vaccines continue to be offered each Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Community and Home Care/Allamakee Public Health. Flu shots are recommended for all those who have not yet received the vaccine, and they will be effective throughout the rest of the flu season.

The next LifeServe Blood Center blood drive will be held Thursday, January 4, from 12-5 p.m., at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon. Blood drives are held every month in Waukon. The LifeServe Blood Center of Iowa supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) with its blood and blood products.

The LifeServe Blood Center of Iowa is seeking donors to ensure a safe and plentiful blood supply in Iowa. Because there is no substitute for human blood, the need for donors is continuous. Many Iowans are encouraged to make donating blood on a regular basis their New Year’s resolution this year.

Spots are still available for the face-to-face Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Class in Waukon beginning in January. This class is not offered locally each year, so the fact it will be held in Waukon is a convenience.  This 138-hour course will conclude in May. Registration for the class must be completed prior to the orientation night January 8.  

The number of Emergency Medical Technicians in this area has dwindled over the years as licensed EMTs have retired. Allamakee and northern Clayton Counties are fortunate to have many emergency response services, but nearly all of them are in need of more EMTs on their service to share the call time, ensuring local emergency services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Veterans Memorial Hospital, together with Helping Services of Northeast Iowa, will be offering the ‘Baby and Me - The Basics’ class Tuesday evening, January 2, from 4-8:30 p.m. in the hospital’s Large Conference Room.

Helping Services’ Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians, Barb Fjelstul and Rachel Weber, will teach the basics of teaching how to correctly secure children in their car seat and getting the seat secured in the vehicle. Barb Fjelstul, also a breast-feeding educator, will guide participants through the challenges and rewards of breast-feeding and provide techniques to ensure baby is getting the most benefit from nursing.

Rachel Stone, RN, is a labor and delivery nurse and will give expecting mothers education on breathing techniques and coping with pain during labor.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) reminds Iowans that an annual flu vaccination is the best way to protect them and their loved ones from the flu.  As people gather together for holiday meals and parties, they’re more likely to spread illness around. Receiving the flu vaccine will help everyone stay healthy to enjoy all the festivities.

This is especially important during family gatherings that infants, those with chronic diseases, or elderly individuals might attend. Infants younger than six months of age are not old enough to receive the influenza vaccine, so they are at a higher risk of catching the flu from someone else and they have the highest chance of being hospitalized if they get ill. Anyone with flu-like symptoms during the holidays must stay home and away from others.

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group will not hold a regular meeting in December.  The group will again hold its regular monthly meetings beginning in January, with the next scheduled meeting January 18 at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.

For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call Angie Mettille, RN, Diabetes Educator at Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411.
 

from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

As part of National Rural Health Day, Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) announced it has been recognized with a 2023 Performance Leadership Award for excellence in patient perspective of quality care. Compiled by the Chartis Center for Rural Health, the Performance Leadership Awards honor top quartile performance (i.e., 75th percentile or above) among rural hospitals in Quality, Outcomes and/or Patient Perspective.

The Performance Leadership Awards are based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX®, the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance. INDEX data is relied upon by rural hospitals, health systems with rural footprints, hospital associations and state offices of rural health around the country to measure and monitor performance across several areas impacting hospital operations and finance.

Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) will be offering a face-to-face EMT Class in Waukon beginning in January. This class is not offered locally each year, so the fact it will be held in Waukon is a convenience for those wishing to take the course with little travel time. This 138-hour course will conclude in May. Registration for the class must be completed prior to the orientation night January 8.  

Postville EMT Randy Plaht has been very dedicated to this volunteer role for over 30 years, and his daughter, Katelyn Peterson, followed in his footsteps.