Rapid City Journal from Rapid City, South Dakota • 9

Section Saturday, May 6, 1989 the Rapid City Journal Inside: Obituaries B2 Classified B2-1 0 Local Nurses are unsung heroes of medicine Thinking about Gordon Hanson Staff Writer Nurses, says Penelope Hanson, are the unsung heroes of medicine. "They are the people who are standing a day, there 24 hours guard at the patient's side and alert to any changes," she said. But, the 19-year nurse-educator said, not everyone may be able to meet the grinding work becoming a nurse? Gordon Hanson Staff Writer Thinking about becoming a nurse? You might first consider the years of study, the long hours, the low pay in comparison to the importance of the work, the stress and burnout, the view by some that nurses are little more than handmaidens. Despite all that, being a nurse is a unique calling in today's society a job that holds Hanson and we have ways of taking care of patients that were not even imagined 10 or IS years ago." But those very marvels of advanced medicine the machines and the hookups and the monitors pose the threat of taking away the personal touch that nurses give patients. Because of the machines, there is an increasing need for "the reassurance of the touching and the caring" by a nurse, Hanson said.

"And as we have that 'high tech' approach, we also need the 'high which is the caring component that nursing is best suited to provide. "No matter how technologically advanced we become in medicine, touching and caring are still a vital part of nursing." The State Board of Nursing said there are 6,434 active registered nurses South Dakota and another 1,130 who hold licenses in the state. Also, there are 2,337 active licensed practical nurses, and another 196 who are licensed. The largest concentration of nurses in western South Dakota is at Rapid City Regional Hospital and Black Hills Rehabilitation Hospital, where more than 500 nurses staff the 47 specialty areas. The hospital also employs LPNs "who work with registered nurses toward the goal of optimum patient care," spokesman Carol Helfenstein said.

To help resolve a nursing shortage, a university-based nursing education curriculum will begin at Regional Hospital. Its two-year associate nurse program will start this fall and a four-year registered nurse program by January. Kate Heligas, executive director of the South Dakota Nurse's Asso- significant reward, says Darlene Garneaux of Rapid City. ''Nursing isn't an 8-hour job," she said. "It is a profession.

And I can't stress enough how it Garneaux and intellectual challenge of nursing. Special qualities are needed. "It takes a unique individual," said Hanson, vice president of support services and head of the school of nursing at Rapid City Regional Hospital. She spoke in an interview before today's observance of National Nurse's Day, which completes a week-long recognition of the nursing profession and its contribution to health care. Hanson said nursing offers a wide variety of jobs, "from those who want to care for babies to those interested in computer applications to a patient care situation," and the true nurse has "a primary focus on caring for others." Earning a nursing degree and keeping abreast of ever-changing medical technology, requires a good mind and self-discipline, nursing professionals said.

"Expanded health care programs require a more highly educated and professional nursing staff," Hanson said. "We have more technology blood pressure and brightens his day during his hospital stay. (Staff photo by Steve McEnroe) Registered Nurse Tena Schauer, on the staff of Rapid City Regional Hospital, checks Buz Kinning's and in nursing," Heligas said. Also, a subjugating attitude by some physicians toward nurses may be changing, she said. "Doctors are looking at nurses as a member of the health care team, and in some instances in a collaborative kind of practice.

There still may be some instances that don't reflect that situation, but for the most part physicians respect nurses and their contributions." ciation headquartered in Sioux Falls, said South Dakota had "a reduced pool of nurses. "For certain positions, where there used to be a pool of multiple applicants for a position, that pool is no longer there. In some rural hospitals, the vacancy rate has been significantly increased." Other than the certainty of finding a job, there are other reasons for becoming a nurse. Job satisfaction is one, Heligas said. "Most people go into nursing because they want to care for people, and that's important because nurses want to be with their patients, whether in a hospital or nursing home or in the community in home health care situations.

It's the patient care." As for the public's attitude toward the profession, a recent American Nurse's Association study "would indicate that the public has a great deal of respect and trust in nurses, Z5 Hangars named after three well-known state aviators impacts on people's lives." Based on a nurse's ability to manage a patient's illness, what is done may directly affect how long, or how well, a patient will live, Garneaux said. A specific payoff is knowing "you are helping your fellow man," said Garneaux, 39. "It's a very rewarding field, when you can help others, and your knowledge and skills can help people in their time of need. We can improve the quality of their lives." Garneaux, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, is a maternal child health consultant for the Indian Health Service's Aberdeen area. She has been a nurse in the Army, with the Veterans Administration and in the private sector.

She also is running for election to the American Nurses Association's cabinet on nursing practice. "I've moved from bedside nursing to an administrative role and now into consulting," she said. "I feel in these types of roles I can touch even more people than by just being a bedside nurse. "I work extremely long hours. I travel four states as a consultant.

But whatever I can do that will impact the care of what Indian people receive, I want to do." Garneaux said a nursing shortage may have been created by "nurses who don't continue to work in the field. It's the long hours, the poor pay, and a lack of recognition for their skills and what they do by the doctors." Another drawback: "The public views us as handmaidens to carry out the doctor's orders, and it's not really true. We take what direction he gives us, but there's a whole nursing science out there nursing diagnoses where we plan the care we give and the quality of it." And nurses aren't handmaidens, she said. "We're the hands-on caregivers." Nursing roles today are so diversified "that almost anybody can find their niche" in the profession, Garneaux said. "There's a field of nursing for almost everybody, from inpatient to outpatient to in-the-field, consulting, management, staff bedside nursing." There are nurse educators, nurse midwifes and nurse practitioners.

that have been stationed here, and some that have not been." Also making brief remarks were state Rep. Don Ham and state Sen. Lyndell Petersen, both of Rapid City, who helped guide through the Legislature a $25,000 appropriation for the museum. In another ceremony, officials of American Honda Motor Co. turned over to the museum a $250,000 Honda Stealth mockup it had used in advertising a new car model.

The mockup, four-fifths the size of a real B-2 Stealth bomber, will be shown during this weekend's open house at the base, then moved to the museum for permanent display. Gordon Hanson Staff Writer Three prominent aviators had aircraft hangars named in their honor Friday at the dedication of the new South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Honored were Joe Foss, Duane "Duke" Corning and Clyde Ice. A fourth hangar will remain unnamed until another person prominent in South Dakota aviation is decided upon, said Jerry Teachout, president of the Ellsworth Heritage Foundation, the museum's parent organization. The base gave the hangars, of the Korean War era, to the non-profit foundation.

They form a new museum complex near the base's main gate. Artifacts in the old building and scores of historical aircraft will be moved next week to the new facility, Teachout said. Corning, of Rapid City, and Ice, of Spearfish, were present at the dedication. Foss, of Scottsdale, and Corning formed the South Dakota Air National Guard shortly after World War II. Foss, a Marine pilot, won the Congressional Medal of Honor and was the first American to shoot down 26 enemy aircraft in World War II, equalling the World War I record of Eddie Rick-enbacker.

Foss also was a two-term South Dakota governor. Corning served 20 years as adjutant general of the South Dakota Guard, was president of the Retired National Guard Association, and ended his career in 1983 as a major general. He had flown 104 combat missions in WWII and has 12,000 flying hours. Ice, who will be 100 years old May 28, is regarded as South Dakota's pioneer aviator. He began flying in 1919 and had logged 43,000 flying hours in a career that included the old barnstorming era.

Brig. Gen. Robert Marquette Jr. said the new museum would not only serve as a reminder of the importance of the Air Force, "but will also bring tourists to this area." For Ellsworth personnel, it will "be a reminder of all the aircraft and missiles Brig. Gen.

Robert Marquette Jr. said the new museum would not only serve as a reminder of the importance of the Air Force, 'but will also bring tourists to this For Ellsworth personnel, it will 'be a reminder of all the aircraft and missiles that have been stationed here, and some that have not Phil Brekhus, general manager of Brekhus Honda in Rapid City, was a key figure along with Ellsworth's Lt. Col. Bob Klawon in convincing Honda officials that the museum would be a good site for the Honda Stealth. Brekhus "is the one who started the whole thing," said Eric Conn, American Honda's advertising director.

"We had a lot of requests, some not very legitimate," from persons wanting the model, Conn said. "When Phil called and wanted it for the museum, it was unique. We wanted to give it a home. We had a lot of pride in the thing," Clyde Ice (left) and Duane "Duke" Corning at Friday's dedication of the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. (Staff photo by Don Polovich) Meetings set to discuss solid-waste regulations Capitol notebook award by the state Water and Natural Resources Department.

Department officials, by the way, are also the people who wrote and amended the language in the bill. Which is just the state's way of keeping the nomination and awards process all in the family. Checks and balances Gov. Mickelson gets to handle plenty of checks during formal ceremonies in his outer office. But he doesn't get to keep them.

When Homestake officials presented the state with a $20,000 check for centennial projects Thursday, the governor had a little trouble letting it go. "Who gets this," he said with mock hopefulness. And who could blame him. The check represented about one-third of his annual governor's salary. Take my troopers, please State Sen.

Red Allen, a Yankton Democrat, is known around the Capitol for his often acidic one-liners. He fired another one at Highway Patrol Superintendent Jim Jones this week during a legislative committee meeting. Jones was seeking authorization to add two state troopers to help patrol highways on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian reservations when Allen made an offer. "I'd just like to tell Col. Jones that you can have two of them out of Yankton.

I can give you their names," Allen said. Watching the media Sen. Lyndell Petersen, R-Rapid City, likes to make sure the legislative process is in its proper order. And he even keeps an eye on the media. When Petersen spotted two reporters quietly huddled over their notes outside a legislative committee room Thursday he issued a friendly warning.

"There's two of you. That's a quorum. You need to advertise that and give public notice." Caught in the act once again. tion Act was a source of controversy during the 1989 Legislature. But it has earned the governor a Region 8 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rich Lathrup, a public affairs official for EPA in Denver, said the awards go to "folks who distinguish themselves in one way or another in environmental work." Lathrup said 20 to 30 awards were given annually in Region 8, which includes the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Colorado. The environmental bill included stiffer regulations on Black Hills surface mining and solid-waste disposal, plus provisions and funds for added protection and monitoring of underground water sources. "I am honored to have been selected to receive this award," Mickelson said in a press release. "The Centennial Environmental Bill was a farsighted piece of legislation designed to protect the environment into the next 100 years." Mickelson was nominated for the the establishment of toxic chemical cleanup days were components of the plan. The solid waste issue has become a more prominent issue since a Colorado company, South Dakota Disposal Systems, applied for a state permit to bury up to 6 million tons of solid waste annually at a site near Edgemont.

Despite the figure listed in the permit application, SDDS President Hunter Swanson said the company's goal was to handle about 1 million tons of imported municipal trash a year. That subject undoubtedly will come up at the meeting in Rapid City, which Haberman urged area citizens to attend. "I think it is vitally important we hear from our citizens prior to the writing of the plan and regulations," he said. The meeting will last about two hours, including an hour for discussion. Family ties Mickelson's Environmental Protec Kevin Woster Capital Bureau PIERRE Black Hills area residents will have a chance to talk about garbage and what to do with it May 25 in Rapid City.

One of four public meetings on a state solid-waste plan and related rules and regulations will be at 7 p.m. at the Howard Johnson Convention Center. The other three meetings are in eastern South Dakota. Officials for the state Water and Natural Resources Department are hoping to develop new rules and regulations for waste disposal by September. They hope to complete a comprehensive waste plan, mandated by Gov.

George Mickelson's Centennial Environmental Protection Act, by December. Clark Haberman, director of the division of air quality and solid waste, said the plan and regulations would be vital if the state is to properly deal with inevitable solid-waste disposal problems and new federal regulations. "Management of solid waste is a real concern, especially waste that might be shipped here from out of state," Haberman said. Haberman said the proper location and management of landfills, the development of recycling and.