Caring Dedication
Stapp oversees ER staff, patients while fighting personal health battleby Carrie Olson, Daily Freeman-Journal Staff Writer
Article Photos
By CARRIE OLSON
Daily Freeman-Journal Staff Writer
Michelle Stapp is a busy person. That word might be an understatement.
As the Emergency Services Nurse Manager, she supervises not only the emergency department but she also oversees the satellite clinics in Jewel and Stratford, connected to Hamilton Hospital.
"I started here in 1994 right after I graduated nursing school," Stapp said. "First I started out as a nurse on the medical/surgical floor and slowly worked up into the ICU setting."
Stapp and her husband, Rob, moved out of the area for a year and she worked as a nurse in a cardiology clinic in Waterloo.
"When I came back, shortly thereafter, I came to the emergency department and then the manager position opened up and I took on that role in 2006," she said.
Stapp focuses on quality improvement with the patients at the hospital.
"I make sure that our patients get good care," she said. "That is a continuing process. I do a lot with process improvement. For example, when our patients come in with chest pain, I make sure they are getting aspirin and EKG's as needed. I make sure they get transferred in a timely manner. It's also a time study to see how quickly our patients get from the door to seeing a physician's assistant or a physician."
"I was glad to see that our average time was ten minutes per patient for the fourth quarter," Stapp said. "That's a feather in our cap for a small town hospital. We provide very good care here."
Although Stapp now lives with her family in Dayton, she was born and raised in Webster City.
"I graduated from high school here in 1991 and went to school at Iowa Central in Fort Dodge and graduated in 1994," she said.
"Even though I live in Dayton, it's great to work here," she added. "I still have a strong family connection to this community. Whatever we do for the hospital affects my family. I have a strong investment in this hospital."
Going into the healthcare field seemed like a good fit as both of her parents have been in such roles.
"My dad, Fire Chief Mike Lund, used to work in EMS and my mom worked in the local nursing homes," she said. "I felt comfortable in the healthcare environment and now being in such a role."
Stapp was excited to talk about the new hospital and what it would mean for the emergency services department.
"The new emergency department will provide much more privacy for our patients," she said. "It has a nice covered entrance outside and is located in its own area of the hospital behind closed doors. There are also four private exam rooms and a large two-bay trauma room that is designed to provide for privacy."
"The patients will have a much better experience in the hospital process," Stapp added. "I think we will be very happy to move to the new hospital."
The word "busy" also is true for her home life, as she has two sons Logan, 7, and Cael, 5. "I'm also on the school board at Southeast Webster," she said. "My family also enjoys camping and golfing, and I have just started getting into half-marathons."
Stapp hopes to get back into running, after her cancer treatments are over.
She has been going for treaments for breast cancer, a disease she found out she had in September of 2009.
"I started treatment right before Halloween in October," she said. "For most of the fourth quarter, from Halloween until Christmas, I wasn't at the hospital. People have stepped into my role and have taken care of things for me. The ER staff have been wonderful and have shown how they can come together and handle things professionally."
She will be gone from time to time throughout the year as she undergoes chemotherapy treatments.
"Hopefully by next fall, things will be back to normal and I won't need anymore treatment," she said.
Her schedule and her work with patients have been different from her usual routine.
"Sometimes I am a little more tired than usual and I don't stay as late as I used to," Stapp said. "Because of my chemotherapy, I don't get to interact with the patients as much as I would like to so that I don't get sick. People are very understanding."
The possibility of being diagnosed with breast cancer wasn't as far-fetched of an idea as it may be for others.
"I always knew I had a family history of breast cancer," she said. "My mother had breast cancer twice, at 38 and 45. She is doing very well now. My grandmother had breast cancer at 39."
Stapp knew that she needed to be on the look out for the disease.
"In September, I found the lump," she said. "It did not show up on my mammogram or the ultrasound initially. I had to be persistent to have an MRI to confirm that there was an irregularity."
She has had mammograms since the age of 30, due to the strong family history.
"I went in for a biopsy at the beginning of October and they confirmed that it was breast cancer," she said. "At first, I felt pretty surprised. But It wasn't as big of a catastrophe as I had thought it would be."
Stapp had prepared herself for news like this. She had a fibroid in her breast ten years before that proved to be nothing serious.
She admitted that she had a moment of panic before her first half-marathon. A feat she accomplished just a week after she found out about the breast cancer.
"Before the marathon, I was standing on an escalator and I remember it very clearly," she said. "It was extreme panic and I was feeling like I wanted to climb out of my skin because I knew the cancer was in me. I wanted to run to the hospital and say 'cut it out of me right now'."
But Stapp's prognosis is excellent.
"My specialist said that the lump has been there for 18 months to two years, but that it was too small to detect," she said. "It had not spread to my lymph nodes and the tissue running around the cancer is clean. I also had a bilateral mastectomy."
A bilateral mastectomy is a surgery that removes all of both breasts.
"I'm going to have to go through a lot of reconstructive surgery," she said.
Stapp is glad that she was persistent with getting an MRI.
"We (she and her husband) wanted more information," she said. "My doctor was very good about getting me an MRI and consulting with specialists."
Besides being persistent with tests, Stapp also has advice for women with a family history of breast cancer.
"I wasn't genetically tested until after I had cancer," she said. "I was tested and found out that I had a genetic mutation that predisposes me to breast cancer. I would recommend that if someone had a strong history of breast cancer, to ask their doctor if they are a good candidate for genetic testing. Follow up on that because it can be a great resource for you to know what type of treatment you may need in the future."
Perhaps another word to define Stapp is "inspirational."
Contact Carrie Olson at lifestyles@freemanjournal.net or cal 832-4350.
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possitivemoments
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01-25-10 11:19 AM
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What an inspiration to all women of Webster City. Michelle is an excellent example of what Webster City has to offer. She comes from a fantastic back ground of family members that have showed pride in their community. Our prayers are with you, Michelle!
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