Had Mallory Helstowki put together a list of units to work upon while in nursing school, the neonatal intensive care unit would not have even made the cut.
But little did she know the people she would meet at Integris Health would change everything she thought she wanted out of nursing.
“I love our patient population,” Helstowski said of her career home at INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center. “I really enjoy getting to help them. We get to be the people that are there to help them with resources and teaching them how to care for their babies. Being able to be the person there in the delivery and seeing the joy on their face and helping a new mom learn how to take care of their newborn baby is such an honor.”
The NICU can be a scary place for moms and dads, even seasoned parents cower at the thought of their child spending time there.
There was little apprehension for Helstowski coming to Integris Southwest out of nursing school after she worked on the floor as a student.
“It wasn’t so scary for me because I had a really great support system,” Helstowski said. “Our preceptors on our unit made me feel like this was my home and they were going to take great care of me.”
She can’t remember what she needed that first time she had to call a doctor, but she does remember her co-workers standing there to provide support during this nursing milestone.
“We are truly like family,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t scared because I felt like my coworkers had my back and were there for me and that made the transition so easy.”
Helstowski was helped along on her path by the INTEGRIS Health Careers program, which provides tuition assistance to community members and employees pursuing a career as a registered nurse.
Students accepted into the Health Careers Education Assistance Program are awarded assistance for books, tuition and fees up to a maximum of $6,000 per year.
“They help pay for you to get through nursing school if you can work with them after you graduate,” she said. “Being in that program you kind of get first dibs of where you want to work.”
During her residency portion of the program she chose the NICU because she knew her next semester at East Central University would be obstetrics.
She’d heard it was one of the toughest semesters and wanted to be ready.
“I had no intentions of falling in love with it, no intentions of wanting to do anything like that,” she said. “But as soon as I started my preceptorship within the residency program I absolutely fell in love with it.”
The work, the people – it all just seemed to fit.
“Getting to walk them through that is really special,” Helstowski said. “I absolutely love my job and everything about it. Our patient population is a really great opportunity to be able to really, truly invest in someone’s life. I feel like I’m a lot of help to them.”
INTEGRIS Chief Nurse Executive Kerri Bayer loves hearing stories like Helstowski’s from across the health system.
She knows with as many opportunities Integris offers, people are sure to find their niche.
And she’s proud of how so many have stepped up this past year in the most daunting of circumstances.
“I am truly in awe of the nurses and all of the healthcare workers who have come in day in and day out and taken care of the sickest of the sick patients,” Bayer said. “It will be a year that has changed my life forever so to be a nurse and be able to lead the nurses within our organization… people say they’re heroes but what they do every day is beyond heroic.”
“It’s phenomenal.” For more information about careers at INTEGRIS Health visit https://integrisok.com/careers
