Nancy Staheli, CNM retires
“Mother of nurse-midwifery” celebrates 25-year career

After 25 years of providing nurse midwife services to the area, Nancy Staheli is retiring May 1, 2000.

If you ask any of the thousands of women who have visited Nancy over the years for obstetric care or well-woman care, they’ll concur that Nancy’s shoes will be hard to fill. In fact, Nancy herself admits that. “I wear a size 11,” she chuckles.

Colleagues of Nancy’s have long been observant of her contributions to the profession of nurse midwifery and her commitment to her patients. Three years ago they honored her as one of the “mothers of nurse-midwifery” and praised her for her “tireless effort in serving women and children in western Minnesota.”

To say Nancy’s nurse midwife practice has mushroomed over the past quarter century is a gross understatement. The two thousand plus births she has attended are testament to the fact that her practice - very simply stated - was a huge success.

When asked what factors contributed to the success of her career, Nancy is quick to respond that “this area was ready for the nurse midwife practice. In other developed countries, they have never gotten away from it. It had developed from the natural way - the midwife who came to your home - to being the professional midwife.”

Nancy’s career in obstetrics began over 40 years ago when she worked as an obstetrics nurse throughout the United States and world, including Alaska, Oregon, British Columbia, and on the Project Hope Ship in Brazil. Around the 15-year mark in that occupation, she decided to make some changes. Nancy applied to a nurse midwife program at one of only two such programs in the country, while also applying to become a participant in Project Hope. Of no surprise, Nancy was accepted to both. “Thank goodness I went with Project Hope first since there was only one more voyage after the one I did before they closed,” she states.

Following her Project Hope venture, Nancy, who grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from Fairview Hospital School of Nursing in 1959, attended the Frontier School of Family Nursing and Midwifery in Hyden, Kentucky, where she received her nurse midwife certification in 1975. After spending one year there as a nurse midwife, Nancy returned to Minnesota and established her practice in Perham.

You’d have to look hard to find someone who has made the time commitment to his or her career, that Nancy has made. For the past 25 years, outside the times when vacationing, she has been on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “I had a cat and a dog and when the phone would ring, my reaction was to not let it ring a second time,” Nancy remarked. “I would jump up from whatever I was doing, the cat would take off running and the dog would chase it–every time. My house was a race of the dog chasing the cat and me running for the phone.” She adds that she’s looking forward to being able to stay out in her garden or starting a painting job in her house and not having to worry about the phone ringing.

What will retirement mean for Nancy Staheli? “My first thoughts of retirement were very scary. In the commitment I had to my practice, I had come to see myself not as ‘Nancy the something else,’ but 'Nancy the nurse midwife,” she comments. “And thought if I’m not ‘Nancy the midwife,’ what am I?” Nancy says she had to look back to what her life was before she became a nurse midwife and remembered that she was an adventurer, a traveler, and that she was always looking for exciting opportunities. “Why would I ever think that I wouldn’t be doing that again? I think I will,” she added.

Without any hesitation, Nancy credits “those little babies” as the most rewarding aspect of her 25-year career. “It’s so rewarding when they come in for their two month checkups and you see them smile and you see them grow. I feel blessed that I’ve been able to be a part of that.”

An open house retirement party celebrating Nancy’s 25 years of nurse midwife service will be held Thursday, April 20 from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Perham Area Community Center (PACC). Please join us for refreshments as we honor Nancy Staheli and wish her well in her retirement.

Perham Memorial Home receives excellence award

Perham Memorial Nursing Home received the Minnesota Health & Housing Alliance’s statewide Excellence In Practice award for 2000, recognizing the nursing home’s unique and applicable program of excellence by demonstrating outstanding performance in the industry.

The award went to the Natural Alternatives Team whose program addresses a difficult and difficult-to-talk-about problem; a program for the reduction of over-the-counter laxatives. By assembling a performance improvement team to promote natural alternatives to laxatives use, a four month trial period where optional routines were utilized resulted in the elimination of over 5,000 doses of such medications with no significant side effects.

Marilyn Oelfke, director of nursing commented, “Our residents, families, and staff were involved in the process throughout the trial. It was a positive demonstration of taking a problem, trying different approaches, ad coming up with a program that was better for everyone as a result.”

Perham Memorial Hospital and Home, 665 3rd Street SW,
Perham, MN, 56573, (218) 346-4500

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