ALEXANDRIA — Lindsay Rourke-Nelson is the director of Primary Care Clinics at Alexandria Clinic, a service of Alomere Health. She has been a registered nurse for 14 years. She started as the nursing manager and four years ago, she moved into the director role. She has worked a total of 10 years at Alomere Health.
She has had the privilege of working with primary care providers/physicians, nurses in primary care and specialty care clinics, medical scribes and Outpatient Social Services.
She lives in Glenwood with her husband, Greg. He is the director of acquisitions and transitions at American Solutions for Business. They have two children, Stella, 10, and Summit, 8. And they have one dog, Saga, and two cats, Ode and Copper. They also raise chickens.
The family loves to be outside in the summer on Lake Minnewaska and in the winter, they spend time on the ski slopes. Rourke-Nelson and her husband also spend a lot of time cheering on their kids’ at their various activities.
As a couple, they enjoy running races together and are craft beer enthusiasts.
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To celebrate National Nurses Week, Rourke-Nelson answered the following questions about her profession:
Q: Why did you become a nurse? What drew you to the profession?
A: It is what I always wanted to do. I never even thought of a different career. I enjoy caring for others and making sure that people are safe and have the resources they need to be successful in their healthcare journey. I went from being a CNA in high school, to a CMA, to a LPN, to a RN and eventually got my BSN. It never even crossed my mind that I would be in a leadership position the majority of my nursing career, but it has been a fantastic journey. I do not have the opportunity to do a lot of hands-on patient care, but I know that the operational work, education and support that I provide contributes toward everyone providing high quality patient care.
Q: What do you love about your job?
A: I love the people that I work with. This is the best teamwork I have ever experienced! Whether it is collaborating with a nurse and physician, a lab team member, or a fellow leader, we are all here for the same reason – patient care. I enjoy creating new processes, developing new patient care programming, providing new nursing care services and gaining efficiencies in healthcare that positively affect the healthcare team and patients. I also love the amount of growth that has happened in the last 10 years of our organization. It truly is impressive.
Q: What are the challenges of your job?
A: The last three years have been a whirlwind, but now working to go back to pre-pandemic has its challenges as well. So many rules and regulations were put on us in healthcare, so we adapted and continued. Now, as we try to revert, it is tough.
Supporting and machining healthcare provider’s resiliency has been another challenge. Staffing and budgeting are other challenges that every leader is navigating right now as well.
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Q: What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about becoming a nurse?
A: You have to have a strong passion to take care of others. It is not about you, it is about your team and your patients. You need to have strong initiative, think outside the box, and have high integrity. Being a nurse is a tough job no matter what role you are in or what facility you work in, but it is very rewarding.
Q: What would you like the community to know about either your job, specifically, or the nursing profession as a whole?
A: We are here caring for our community because we want to and because we are the best at what we do.
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