Heather Switak lives just blocks from where she was born – the former site of Resthaven Hospital. Coming full circle, she worked the last three decades of her career not far off, at Rest Haven Lodge. The director of care started at the Seventh-day Adventist-run facility on April 1, 1982, three months before construction completed on the Sidney site.
March 30 was her last day at work, and after some holiday time, she officially retires June 1.
“That first three months was pretty hectic,” Switak said.
She’d been nursing in the U.S. for 13 years before coming home to run Rest Haven. Those three months prior to opening were filled with paperwork, policy making, devising schedules, hiring staff and interviewing potential clients.
“Her whole nursing philosophy about looking after the whole person,” stood out, said Myrna Fox, who worked with Switak for a dozen years. “There’s a real emphasis on the spiritual part of it, even though times have changed. … It still has that basic Christian outlook on life.”
Activities like music therapy are symptoms of her nursing philosophy.
“[It’s] knowing that other things add to a person’s life. She’s a wonderful advocate that way,” Fox said.
It also includes creating individual care plans in each of three areas and simply “treating people the way we would like to be treated,” Switak said.
“The mission of Rest Haven Lodge and of the Adventist church is to carry on the healing ministry of Christ,” she added. “We’re not going to be able to heal everyone physically but we can aim for wholeness; if not physically then emotionally, socially, spiritually.”
There was one substantial change over the three decades she led the care team at Rest Haven. About eight years ago the Sidney facility shifted to complex care. “The transition was not difficult at first,” Switak said. “It became more difficult as time passed. The routine care we were giving had to evolve into a much deeper level of care.”
And again she found herself developing policies and procedures.
“She was always calm even when there was a lot of change going on,” said Fox. “Even when things were chaotic … she would just smile this wonderful smile and you would never know what was going on.”