SANTA LETTERS
Dozens of Creston elementary students have written letters to Santa Claus. Read their letters on page 3A and 7A of today’s newspaper.
DUAL DOMINATION
The Creston/O-M wrestling team rolled to a 48-19 victory over Glenwood Tuesday, giving the Panthers their 27th straight Hawkeye 10 Conference dual win. More on page 1S. >>
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Day in the life: Paislee Dalton Creston Holiday Giveaway winning numbers are:
By BAILEY POOLMAN CNA staff reporter bpoolman@crestonnews.com
CORNING — “I can make a difference.” That’s just one of many things Paislee Dalton loves about her job as a nurse at CHI Health Mercy in Corning. Dalton, 26, works 12-hour shifts three days a week with patients at CHI Health Mercy, where she takes care of patients on the floor, as well as in the emergency room. A nurse’s job Nursing is providing “direct patient care,” Dalton said. The care includes doing a physical assessment on the patient to find out what is wrong and how to care for him or her. The assessment includes listening to the sounds of the heart and lungs and taking vital signs such as blood pressure and oxygen saturation in the blood. But, care includes many other things as well. “We do everything,” Dalton said, “from taking them to the bathroom to making their bed to giving them all kinds of medications to starting IVs.” There is no set schedule during the day for a nurse in Corning, where Dalton calls her work day “organized chaos.” In between taking care of the patients’ daily needs, she and her fellow nurses do bedside reports and check background history. They also work in the ER. “The patient comes in (to the ER). We register them. We do an assessment. We do vital signs, we triage them (decide seriousness of wounds or illness) and then we notify the doctor,” Dalton said. “Sometimes the doctor gives us orders prior to them seeing the patient, and we can get that stuff doing, like labs, X-rays, IVs, medications. The doctor comes and sees them, we try to get results back and we talk to the patient and their family.” Dalton said her job revolves around “direct patient care,” something she plans to
CNA photo by BAILEY POOLMAN
From left, CHI Health Mercy nurses Diane Becker, Erin Bowden and Paislee Dalton check on a patient’s medical record on the computer system while on shift together last week at the hospital. Dalton is one of many nurses at the hospital who helps take care of patients by doing bedside reports, taking vital signs, assisting physicians and talking with patients and families.
CNA photo by BAILEY POOLMAN
Paislee Dalton, nurse at CHI Health Mercy in Corning, takes Everett Tribolet’s blood pressure during a checkup last week at the hospital. As a nurse, Dalton takes vital signs, works in the emergency room and cares for patients and their families in many ways.
do for the rest of her career. Direct patient care “People come in and they’re at their worst. Then, you get to discharge them, and hopefully they’re better,” Dalton said. “You take care of them at their worst, and sometimes they’re not always the nicest, and then, when they’re going home, you get to see the real person they are.” Once, Dalton had a patient who had a terminal diagnosis. The patient’s family hadn’t
arrived yet, and Dalton tried to help. “We just talked until her family could be there. I felt like I made a big difference because she didn’t have to sit there and cry alone,” Dalton said. Dalton also said working with children and dying patients is tough. “It’s so hard to watch someone so little go through something so tough. It makes my day-to-day stuff seem like nothing,” Dalton said.
“Families don’t know what to expect, so I always try to take the time and talk to them about, you know, this is what’s going to happen with your loved one. It’s just hard to talk to them. I try to put myself in their position.” Nurses in Corning have an annual training day, and they are also certified in different things like advanced cardiac life support and pediatric advanced life support. The state of Iowa requires a certain DALTON | 2A
Creston Mayor Warren Woods, left, presents outgoing at-large councilwoman Nancy Loudon with a plaque following Tuesday’s Creston City Council meeting. Loudon was a councilwoman in Creston for four years. She has been the council representative on Creston Library and Prairie Solid Waste boards. Loudon said her future plans include spending more time with her husband Tim and son Eli, an eighth-grader at Creston Schools. Steve Wintermute will fill the at-large vacancy left by Loudon. Woods was also presented a plaque for his service as mayor for the past eight years. Gary Lybarger will take over as mayor of Creston in January.
CNA photo by KYLE WILSON
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$500 - 185065 (white), 334287 (red) $100 - 190968 (red), 212477 (white), 218826 (red), 770213 (white), 373851 (all red) Winning ticketholders have until 4 p.m. Jan. 5 to claim their prizes at the Chamber office. The Chamber reminds ticketholders if not all all prizes are claimed in the first drawing, a second drawing will be Jan. 5, so don’t throw away your tickets.
Honorary plaque:
PRICE 75¢
Ellen Gerharz, executive director for Creston Chamber of Commerce, drew winning tickets in the Creston Holiday Giveaway drawing this morning. They are:
Volume 132 No. 141
2014
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Creston library to upgrade Internet speed Creston City Council approves Internet upgrade, garbage contract with Waste Management ■
By KYLE WILSON
CNA managing editor kwilson@crestonnews.com
Gibson Memorial Library in Creston has a need for speed. For nearly 15 years, Gibson has been operating on 1.5MB speed Internet service through Windstream Communications. This slow Internet speed has caused difficulties for library patrons and staff for many years. “It’s embarrassing when patrons need help with a Web-based activity and our Internet service is so slow you can’t even open the web page,” Hargrove said. “Patrons also aren’t able to download the materials they need right now, and videos are out of the question.”
Hargrove recognized this slow Internet problem shortly after being hired in July. He said the first red flag came right away when patrons explained to him they were going to the Southwestern Community College library, instead of Gibson, because the community college’s Internet was faster. “That was a problem,” Hargrove said. “In today’s world, you have to be connected digitally and our patrons deserve to have reliable Internet. Information and Internet connectivity are an important part of our library’s mission.” Hargrove said nearly 450 patrons used a desktop computer last month at Gibson and many more logged into the library’s Wi-Fi Internet. Hargrove said an upgrade to 12MB speed Internet will certainly improve patron experience. Maybe more importantly though, the upgrade in Internet SPEED | 2A
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