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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

PHD Nurse Best In Idaho

Mary Clarke, a registered nurse with Panhandle Health District's Home Health division, talked about being named among the top 50 home health and hospice nurses in the nation by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice at their office in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday. She came to nursing through an interesting career path; she used to be a Formula car driver, and then worked as an EMT at racetracks before becoming a registered nurse. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

Her days as a race car driver serve Mary Clarke well as a home health nurse in North Idaho. She travels daily, taking dirt roads to remote locations throughout the five counties to find some patients. She has at least once unbuckled her seat belt and readied herself, shaking with adrenalin, to leap from her car if it slid much farther down the narrow switchbacks cut into a snow-covered mountain. But Clarke’s racing days – and her time as a trackside EMT, responding to crashes and fires – represent just one part of a life that’s prepared her for a job that inserts her regularly into unfamiliar environments, charged with not only assessing patients’ medical conditions but the conditions around them that could hurt their ability to heal/Adrian Rogers, SR. More here.

Question: Has your family been helped by home health care?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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