Former WHMC nurse now Lincoln Hospital nursing director

DAVENPORT — New Lincoln Hospital Nursing Director Bonnie E. DesJardin has been working at the local hospital for three weeks. It’s not everyday someone starts a new medical job in the middle of a pandemic. So, it’s understandable that when DesJardin was asked how life at Lincoln Hospital compared to other jobs, she couldn’t offer up an answer.

“I don’t know what the normal is here,” DesJardin said. “I’ve been told some things, but I really haven’t experienced it yet … I expected to come out here and start by really just seeing how this hospital is run. And they do a really good job here. But with the pandemic going on, all of the normal stuff I would be doing is set by the wayside.”

DesJardin said much of her time currently is being spent making sure the hospital is able to separate potential COVID-19 patients from patients at the hospital for other reasons and making sure good practices are in place.

DesJardin brings 25 years of nursing experience to her post at Lincoln Hospital. It’s a career she says she loves.

“I like to help people,” DesJardin said. “I always have, ever since I was a little kid. And I figured that if you are sick or injured, you are going to want someone who loves their job there to take care of you. And that’s me.”

She knew she wanted to be a nurse from an early age.

“I was a teenager,” DesJardin said. “I wanted a job. So, I went to the local nursing home and applied for a job. I got my first job as a nursing assistant as a teenager. I was still in school and worked on the weekends.”

DesJardin graduated from Lewiston High School in 1988. She met her husband, Rory, when she was 19 and the two married shortly after. By 1991, they had started a family and DesJardin decided she wanted to continue her education.

So, DesJardin enrolled in the nursing program at Walla Walla Community College in Clarkston. After graduating with her associate degree in nursing, she began her career as a nurse at Whitman Hospital & Medical Center in Colfax in 1994.

After spending some time in that job, she left to work at the private practice of Colfax orthopedic surgeon Dr. Harold French in 2001.

DesJardin kept that job for about nine years before deciding to do something new. With her children older by now, she heard about an opportunity to become a traveling nurse in Montana. The job was 13 weeks long and close enough to home to drive there, do her three days’ work of 12-hour shifts, and return home.

She enjoyed that, and when another traveling position was available when she finished her 13 weeks, she took it.

This one was a bit further away.

“It was in Maryland,” DesJardin said. “I talked to my husband about it and he was very supportive.”

Over the next several years, DesJardin traveled all over the country working 13-week gigs at hospitals large and small. She really enjoyed it.

During this time, her husband had been working at a job in Idaho designing bullets. When he left that job, he accepted a position in Wisconsin at the same time that DesJardin took a nursing assignment in California. Over the next 13 weeks, lots of money on airfare was spent as she flew back and forth between Wisconsin and California.

Finally, the two decided to return home to Washington. DesJardin took a job at Providence Holy Family Hospital in Spokane in 2014 while her husband took a job as a professor.

DesJardin said she had always planned to return to school to earn her bachelor’s degree, but a verity of reasons kept her from doing so. However, this would change at Holy Family.

“I decided now was the time,” DesJardin said. “There were three or four other nurses at the hospital that all decided we would go back to school together.”

They enrolled at Western Governors University, an online school that allows students to progress through the programs at their own pace. DesJardin completed the two-year program in eight months. But she wasn’t done yet.

“I decided, ‘You know what, I’m already in the mode of school, so let’s carry on and get my master’s degree,’” DesJardin said.

DesJardin said she always thought she may be interested in teaching nursing, so she earned her master’s in nursing education degree, also from WGU.

While still at Holy Family, an interim leadership position was offered to her. She worked in that position until a permanent person was assigned. She said this helped light a fire in her, because she enjoyed the job.

DesJardin has returned to school to earn a second master’s degree, this time in nursing management. When the nursing director job in Davenport came open, it made sense to her to apply for it.

“The ad for this job was just sent to me out of the blue,” DesJardin said. “I wasn’t looking for a job. But I always knew I wanted to go higher up into management. I just thought it would be through Providence.”

DesJardin said the small size of the Davenport Hospital didn’t bother her.

“When I traveled, a lot of the hospitals I worked at were rural ones,” DesJardin said. “In between traveling, I would work at Tri State Memorial in Clarkston. And it’s about the same size as this hospital.”

DesJardin, who spent most of her career working in the ER, said one of the largest adjustments she has to make here is getting used to not working with patients as often. She says it’s too early to tell how that adjustment is coming.

“I do miss it,” DesJardin said. “But I don’t know yet, because when I worked in management at Holy Family, I still did patient care. So, I have only been out of it for three weeks. So, we’ll see.”