NURSES
E3
MAY 2023
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
Pain Management Nurse: 'That’s what we’re put on Earth for — to help people' By GEORGE HAWS george.haws@nptelegraph.com T aylor Anderson, a nurse practitioner in pain management at Great Plains Health, has worked hard to get to where she is today. She has great appreciation for role models and others who have en- couraged her along the way and for the opportunity to help her patients enjoy life. Sometimes she thought, “I didn’t know it was go- ing to be this hard,” but she never considered quit- ting. “I just don’t have that attitude," Anderson said. In the end, “it was worth it.” Anderson moved to Cedar Rapids, Nebraska, and worked as a registered nurse on the medical/surgi- cal floor and intensive care unit in the Columbus hospital while working on her Master of Science in nursing. patients are going through. Helping to manage their pain, “you’re making a difference so they can enjoy life.” In 2017 Taylor met Zach Anderson, who is now her spouse. He encouraged her and helped her study while she was finishing her schooling. He has two sons, Jayce, 11, and Ty, 8. “The boys love what I do,” she said. They’re fun- ny, too. Sometimes when she gets home they’ll ask, “How many butt shots did you give today?”
During her last year of the MSN program (2017- 18), she worked part-time at a clinic in Albion. She had been applying for nurse practitioner jobs at the same time. One day she received a call about a posi- tion at Great Plains Health Pain Management Clinic. "‘I don’t know much about it (pain management),’” she answered. But she applied. On a trip to the hospital in North Platte, she met Dr. Aleeta Ann Somers-Dehaney, a pain
To people thinking of going into medicine, “I would tell them to definitely consider it," she said. "Your job is so rewarding. That’s what we’re put on Earth for — to help people.” As for Great Plains Health, “I’m glad that five years ago they gave me this op- portu- nity."
Anderson is originally from Colome, South Dako- ta, a town of about 300 people, 80 miles northeast of Valentine. As a child she became acquainted with a nurse practitioner who practiced in Gregory, 15 miles to the east, but would occasionally go to an outreach clinic in Colome. “I was very impressed with the way she cared and treated myself and my family," Anderson said. "She would go out of her way to find medications that were more affordable and other resources if needed, and was someone I looked up to and aspired to be like someday.” At 14, Anderson started working as a certified nurse assistant at a nursing home in Winner, South Dakota. From then on, "I've always worked in health care," she said. After graduating from Colome High School in 2008, she worked to save money for a couple of years, then attended Metropolitan Community College in Omaha for prerequisite courses. Her parents, Larry Zeigler and Donelle Eby, were able to help some with the cost, but she worked a lot to pay her college expenses, too. “I travelled as a CNA and also delivered papers for the Omaha World Herald. ... I would pick up papers on the weekend around 3 a.m. so that they could be delivered by 7.” “There were a lot of sleepless nights,” she said, but “I did whatever I could to get through school.” In 2011, she moved to Norfolk, where she finished prerequisites and enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in nursing program at UNMC Northern Division. She graduated and passed her state boards in 2014. During that time she continued to work as a travel- ing CNA.
management medical doctor. “I really want to be like her,” Anderson said she thought. "Her mannerisms, listening to the patients — she’s a blessing." Anderson was hired and has been working as a nurse practitioner (APRN — advanced practice regis- tered nurse) in pain management for Great Plains Health ever since.
“Pain medicine is not just the physical,” she said. "A lot of times they are dealing with depression, too. “I like spending time with my patients, figuring out
what’s triggering what.“ “Sometimes its kind of wearing on you,” she said, but “lis- tening and hearing what they’re going through is so re- warding.” Anderson was
in a car accident when she was 20, so she has an idea what her
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