Caring for her community
Heidi Desch / Whitefish Pilot Registered Nurse Mona Benson stands with a quilt she made that hangs on the wall of Glacier Medical Associates, where she retired from last week. She has been a nurse for 41 years, with 28 of those working in Whitefish.
Registered Nurse Mona Benson has formed a connection with the patients she sees year after year.
“I enjoy the people,” she said. “Seeing babies for their check-ups at two months, four months, six months, and one-year. Watching the families grow — I really do enjoy that.”
She tears up when thinking about not seeing those patients and her co-workers.
“There’s people I see here that I don’t see in the community,” she says. “Maybe I’ll see them more now that I’ll be out in the community more.”
Benson retired last week after 41 years caring for patients, with 28 of those working in Whitefish. She earned her nursing degree at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula and previously worked in a clinic in Livingston before she and husband, Bob, moved here for his job with BNSF Railway.
Nursing runs in the family — an aunt, cousins and an older sister, who inspired her career, have all been nurses. Growing up on a cattle ranch in Livingston, she knew when it was her turn to go to school that she’d study nursing. Today her son, Andrew, is a nurse anesthetist and daughter, Ashlee, is studying physical therapy.
“I’ve never second-guessed my choice to be a nurse,” he said. “I like to care for people.”
Benson has worked as Dr. John Kalbfleisch’s nurse during her tenure in Whitefish. She began working at Family Physicians clinic when the practice had five doctors and just a few nurses before it merged with other practices to form Glacier Medical Associates.
“I like being the connection between patients and Dr. Kalbfleisch,” she said. “I’ve been seeing some of the same people for 28 years. Babies that Dr. Kalbfleisch delivered 25 years ago, now he’s delivering their babies.”
Caring for patients hasn’t changed over the course of her career, but Benson said technology has changed medicine. She said for about the last 10 years having electronic medical records has changed the way she does her job.
“The basic way you take care of a patient is the same, but technology has changed the way I do my job in the day-to-day,” she said. “It’s made my job of organizing and reminding patients of their check-ups easier. It’s made caring for people a lot more thorough. That helps people to stay healthy and that’s our job.”
In retirement, Benson expects she’ll have more time to devote to her quilting hobby and maybe volunteering. She is a member of the Teakettle Quilt Guild and the Whitefish P.E.O. Benson was inspired by her mother’s sewing of clothes and Benson’s wedding dress, to take up sewing. Benson’s own sewing talents have been decorating one of the clinic walls in the form of the wall-hanging quilts she makes and swaps out seasonally. She believes now she’ll have the time to make sure those wall-hanging change more often.
“Sewing is a creative outlet for me,” she said. “When I need to relax I go to my sewing room. Patients always notice the quilts when they change and say how neat they are.”