A Day in the Life….

Settle in with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine – it’s a long one.

People have asked me what it’s like to be a nurse in Yellowstone.  A lot of descriptors come to mind – exciting, different, enjoyable, challenging.  But I think the best word I can come up with is unpredictable.  Each day is different.  You never know who will walk through the door at any given moment.  That includes a couple of my local heroes. I have learned I get very tongue-tied when I am around people I admire. So, if I speak incoherently when we are together – just know I admire you and am, most likely, not drunk.  (Leana, you are exempt from that statement, as it could be either or both.)

There are three clinics in Yellowstone National Park. They are located at Lake Village, Old Faithful, and Mammoth Hot Springs.  The clinic at Mammoth is open year-round and has full-time staff. Each clinic has different hours to accommodate the needs of visitors.  Lake and Old Faithful are in the interior of the park and are much more remote than Mammoth.  Housing there is definitely NOT the bougie apartment my roommate and I share…. which I am grateful for every day and have some associated guilt. Good Baptist girl, here. 

The clinic in Mammoth is different in that we have a full-time physician on site.  We function a bit more like a family practice clinic than the other clinics and see many of the folks in the surrounding communities for primary care.   It is important to note that visitors don’t always understand what purpose we serve.  We are not an urgent care facility.  Nor are we a first aid station.  We are not a pharmacy or a medical supply store.  If you are a park employee – particularly Ranger Joe and EMS staff – we ARE a free ice cream parlor.  Joe has been a ranger in the park for 800 years.  He has some sort of special ice cream radar for when the truck delivers to the clinic.  He shows up about two minutes after the truck leaves.  There is always a supply of Wilcoxon’s ice cream bars and goodies. They make incredible huckleberry fudge ice cream.  There are really no words…but I digress.  If someone comes into the clinic with an issue, they must make an appointment and be seen by the provider.  Due to liability issues, we can’t render care without the patient having an appointment.  We are staffed by MDs, PAs, NPs, RNs and our own Disney Princess Cruise Director, Barb, who drives the ship in Mammoth.  She is gorgeous with long flowing blonde hair.  The first time I met her and saw someone with hair and makeup in check, I thought “Ooooh!!  My people!!!”.

What kinds of ailments do we treat? Well, this year I have cared for a patient having an inferior wall MI (giant, life threatening heart attack), broken bones, lacerations, scrapes, abdominal pain, headaches, splinters, nausea/vomiting, adverse reactions to first time as well as chronic use of marijuana (legal in Montana), sexually transmitted diseases, COVID, influenza, shortness of breath, altitude sickness, scabies (I’m sorry, what? I thought only pirates get scabies – then I remembered that is scurvy.  My mistake.), burns from tourists who can’t, or won’t read, and feel the need to put an appendage in a thermal feature, and my all-time favorite (so far) a dude who drank water from a thermal pool/hot springs.  My friend, Tony, told me he didn’t think I would be very good at this job.  He knows me and knows I just want to shout, ‘What the hell is wrong with you?!?!?!”  I haven’t.  Yet.   We are across from the Justice Center and near the jail, so we do get an occasional prisoner.  That just reminds me of my days at Parkland in Dallas. Most patients are treated in the clinic and discharged.  However, there are some who require a higher level of care than we can provide. Depending upon the gravity of their situation, they are either transported via ground or air.  We have a helipad near the clinic.  When I hear transport coming, I feel like yelling, “Choppers!!!!!”, like Radar on MASH.

The closest hospital to Mammoth is over an hour away in the town of Livingston.  That is the closest hospital to any of our clinics.  The closest hospitals to Old Faithful and Lake are over an hour and a half away, and they are not trauma hospitals.  We do what we can to stabilize patients and then ship them out as quickly as possible if that is necessary. We do not normally get emergencies from the field – meaning severe injuries from car or motorcycle accidents or hiking/climbing accidents.  They are usually transported by EMS to a facility with a higher level of care. 

My typical day at work begins with a 4-mile commute and gains about 1500 feet.  It’s officially called the Old Gardiner Road, but my roommate, Paula, calls it Mario Kart Road.  It has 67 turns in 4 miles – I counted.  For reference – the Road to Hana has 600 curves in 64 miles. So, technically, it has more curves per mile than the Road to Hana.  It is a beautiful drive to work.  I have views of Electric Peak. Sepulcher Mountain, Bunsen Peak and Mount Everts.  It’s fun to go through the “Employee” entrance at the gate.  I get waved on through, because I have a sticker on my window saying I am a park employee.  I am special – been telling Suzi that for decades.  It makes me feel so important.  LOL. 

I have encountered a lot of wildlife on the drive to work including elk, pronghorn, bison, ducks, coyotes, birds of prey, and a badger.  It’s always an adventure!  The “traffic” through the town of Gardiner has nothing to do with cars or people and everything to do with the local elk.  Elk have their babies in late spring/early summer, and they are all over town.  We must be very careful when walking around town, because mama elk are very protective.  One morning, I got a text from Paula asking if I knew baby elk like to eat flowers.  It took me a second to understand that was her very gentle way of telling me they ate all my potted plants on the porch.  Mind you – we live up about 6 steep stairs in a gated area!!!  There is no Starbucks in Gardiner, so I frequent the local place called Bears Brew. My favorite is an iced oat milk Yellowstone River Latte – it has hazelnut and caramel. Yum!!!  (There is also a cute barista boy with a man bun and very intense eyes who makes eye contact with you the entire time you are ordering.  I suppose he is the sensitive, mountain man type. He’s a cutie but can never remember I don’t want cow’s milk. I forgive him. Daily.)

Working in Yellowstone as a nurse has given me skills, I never thought I would learn or even need to learn!  My job description includes front desk secretary duties responsible for billing and coding, checking insurance eligibility, completing paperwork, answering phones, collecting payment, making appointments and calming freaked out parents whose little one has a teensy tiny splinter; staff nurse duties responsible for triage of patients, vital signs, wound care, medication administration, etc.; x-ray tech; phlebotomist; lab technician processing labs in the centrifuge (huh?); Amazon package sorter; and mail runner.  Interestingly, our interoffice mail consists of suitcases that are packed with whatever clinics need.  That can be anything from toilet paper to medication. There is a courier who picks them up and transports them to the other clinics in the park. We are responsible for calling the communications center for transport of patients who need a higher level of care.  And – general greeter of visitors, guardian of wildlife, and snake charmer.  (We had a four-foot bull snake who came to our yard to eat the prairie dogs who live around the clinic. I was not amused….at all. Paula was beside herself.  She loved those little prairie dogs.) I have gained a lot of experience with drawing blood and starting IVs – for which I am grateful.  I needed it.

Yesterday, we had elk all over our lawn which brought tourists who approached way too close.  They are supposed to stay 25 yards away.  They were about five yards away and inching closer.  So glad Mr. Ranger came to save the day.  I was about to go all crazy on them.  I’ve thought of flashing my nursing badge at them and saying, “Law enforcement! Move along!!”  But that might be a federal offense.  We have a giant sign guiding people to the back door if the front door is blocked by animals.  There have been black bears in the village for the last two weeks.  One ran through the parking lot last week and we got a great view of him/her.  There was a grizzly sow and two cubs in the village a few weeks ago.  The NPS does a good job of hazing them out of the area to keep the bears and visitors safe. 

The day ends for me around 5:00.  Only once this season (during my shift) has someone walked in the door at 4:58. Bastard. I head back down the hill to Gardiner and still have many hours of daylight left for exploration.  It’s a great gig.  I will forever be grateful for this experience.