North Dakota State Hospital offers flexibility, educational opportunities
Mar. 30—Editor's note: This story is advertorial content as part of the 2023 Jamestown Sun Progress Edition on "Business, Workforce, Retention."
JAMESTOWN — Whether people are beginning their career or looking to revitalize retirement, the North Dakota State Hospital provides opportunities for them to do so. And the flexibility, support and tuition reimbursement availability in those individual journeys make a difference, employees say.
Kim Matroni is the director of inpatient services at the hospital. She started working as a CNA in 2007 with no CNA certification and received her training at the hospital, she said. At the time she started working, she had a four-year psychology degree.
"There's not a lot you can do with a four-year psych degree and so I figured instead of working elsewhere in town, I would come someplace where I could use the degree knowledge and get some experience to be able to build my resume," she said.
Matroni worked in the admission unit for about 3 1/2 years and returned to school twice, getting her master's degree in psychology, and later a master's in clinical mental health. She currently oversees the treatment and rehabilitative services for inpatient clients.
"All of my psych experience has been here at the State Hospital working in various roles and I think without the support of the leadership that was in place during each of those transition points in my hospital career, I wouldn't have had the opportunities that I have been afforded," Matroni said.
She said people who are willing to do the work can find many opportunities for growth in their employment at the State Hospital.
Barb Mickelson, a nurse practitioner, said retirement wasn't really what she thought it was going to be.
"I found myself always thinking, am I retired or just unemployed?" she said.
So she began working at the hospital six months ago and said it's worked out "very well."
"I feel a sense of purpose, I can offer to who I consider a marginalized population my experience and my medical experience," she said.
Mickelson works two days a week.
"I'm very flexible as is the institution," she said. "If something doesn't work for me, I can switch. If something doesn't work for my colleagues, they switch with me. So it's very flexible."
Mickelson works in what's called the consult clinic, which deals with medical issues, she said. She said after 48 years in her field, what she likes about working at the State Hospital is that she still has much to learn and people are willing to help her.
"I feel so appreciated and valued here and that just makes it so much easier to come to work each day and really enjoy that," she said.
She said she thinks for other retirees, working at the hospital could fill a need for them too.
"... You can only clean so much when you're at home (in retirement) ... and when you come here you use all the experience and the knowledge you've learned over the years and apply it," she said.
Andrea Christianson, director of social services at the hospital, had a bachelor's degree when she started working at the hospital as a social worker in 2014. She, like Matroni, returned to school and earned a master's in social work in 2017.
"The hospital picked up 80 percent of my tuition for my master's program, which was immensely helpful," she said. "It helped me a lot. Because I honestly don't think I would have gone back if I didn't have help."
She noted she was able to do her internship for her master's program at the hospital.
"I know I've had a couple employees that have done it as well and have done tuition reimbursement who are very grateful for it as well," she said. "My thought is, if I'm already in the field and I can further my education, that's great, and if I can get help paying for it, also another benefit. The hospital's been very flexible, they were very flexible when it came to doing my internship, being able to find aspects of my current job that I wasn't doing that I could apply to a master's level internship."
Misty Miller received CNA training at the hospital when she began working there as a temporary employee in 2018 after moving to Jamestown that year with her husband, Joshua, and family. She soon was working in a full-time CNA position.
In 2020, they began offering a licensed practical nursing program at the hospital through Dakota College at Bottineau.
"I wasn't sure about it but one of our physician's assistant, Linda Regan, she pushed me and pushed me," Miller said. "She said, 'You need to do this. You will be an amazing nurse. You have to do it.' So I broke down and applied for the program and I graduated with my LPN in 11 months."
Miller went on to earn an associate RN degree and became a registered nurse in 2022. She is currently attending Minot State University for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is expected to finish in July.
Miller said she has used the tuition reimbursement program throughout, which has helped because she couldn't pick up extra shifts every week during school and with her family. She said the hospital was flexible with her hours, working with her school schedule.
"The staff are amazing. Everyone is there for you," she said.
Abby Newman was a student at the University of Jamestown working on her Master of Science in Clinical Counseling when she came to the hospital in late 2021 to complete her practicum requirement.
"I sought out the State Hospital, I thought it would be a good opportunity, a good learning experience," Newman said. "... and in that experience, I really quickly realized that I hadn't had much exposure to an inpatient setting personally and professionally."
She said she hadn't really seen herself as a counselor in an inpatient setting before coming there.
"It was invaluable experience and I really really enjoyed the State Hospital and the work I could do as a counselor in an inpatient setting," Newman said.
Newman and Matroni, her supervisor, discussed Newman returning to do her internship and working at the hospital, which she did. She became a full-time employee in early 2022 and completed her internship after that.
"When you're looking at working full time and being a full-time student and having to complete 600 internship hours on top of that, I was at that point kind of wondering how I was going to keep up with it all," Newman said.
She is now a full-time licensed associate professional counselor employed at the hospital as a human relations counselor and says one of the things she has enjoyed is the opportunity to be on a clinical treatment team for clients.
The North Dakota State Hospital offers an 80% tuition reimbursement to qualified employees. To qualify, the degree must support the employee's role within the organization, be approved by its leadership team and fall within state-identified parameters.
The University of Jamestown also offers NDSH employees a 10% reduction on tuition.
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