Jerked from my own thoughts, I suddenly looked up and asked, “Hey, Dad, what’s the best choice you made when you were young?” Without a pause, he answered me, “I joined the Air Force” and laughed at himself a bit. Coming from my father, the answer I expected was a long-drawn out-pondering-each-side-and-not-making-judgments-quickly sort of an answer. I was surprised at his rare succinctness. When reflecting on it later, I realized how connected my dad is to the Uniformed Services of America, and how his partnership with them has been a foothold in our family all of my life and has guided my dad in many of the important choices that he’s made in his life.
Kevin Elker was an eighteen year old boy from Moorhead, Minnesota with a high school diploma in one hand and few options ahead of him. He determined that he wanted to go to college, but his family was not well-off, and he knew that he would have to earn his own way. Like many teenagers, the obvious choice was to join the army, which offered to repay on his school loans. Kevin had always been a quirky person, and when he joined the army he told them that he had really enjoyed cooking in home economics class, so they appointed him as a cook. He was also a cook at a pancake house in town and worked his first nursing home job. After a year of hard work, Kevin packed up and made the short journey to Bemidji, MN, to study at Oak Hills Bible College, a tiny private school, where Kevin received an associate’s degree in Biblical studies. He told me that at the time he wanted to learn about what he believed, and he did—some, but in some ways, more importantly, he confided in me that he learned how to discuss things with people, understanding their thoughts about the world and how to explain your own thoughts to others. Funny enough, when he was studying meticulously for his nursing degree at Winona State University, one of his professors asked him in amazement after a long class, “Kevin, where did you learn to think like this?” My father answered candidly, “At Bible College, Professor."
After three years of hard studying in Winona, Kevin and his wife, Kristi, hopped into the car on graduation day and drove north, back to Bemidji. Kevin strove determinedly in the winter wasteland of Bemidji, but when talking to me, he reminisced about his discouragement and discontent with his job as a nurse at the local hospital. However, several glorious things did happen during this time—the birth of his two children, Mackenzie in 1995 and Isaak in 1996.
Two and a half years later, the armed forces reentered his life, offering a new chance as a nurse in Dayton, Ohio. He took a leap, packed up his small family, and turned towards a new chapter of life. Kevin and his family lived on Air Force base housing, a grouping of small disheveled townhouses which formed close-knit, if very temporal, communities of people from many different races, jobs, and walks of life. Kevin explained a bit about the wonderful atmosphere that the Air Force can foster, saying, “In the Air Force, there are people of all different races and religions, yet people first and foremost consider themselves to be ‘army people.’ Because of this people view each other differently and put many of their personal prejudices aside.” During this time, Kevin met and worked with many different kinds of people, expanding his experience with people greatly. Although He lived in Ohio for only five years, he received two promotions, advancing from second lieutenant to first lieutenant and then again from first lieutenant to captain. Although Kevin’s time in Ohio was very valuable, it was not a permanent way to live. Kevin and his family made many close friends, but people never stayed put for long in the Air Force, and after five years he decided to move back to Minnesota where his family lived. The Air Force had helped him to make great strides in his career and would continue to do so back in Minnesota, if in an absolutely unexpected way.
When Kevin returned to Minnesota, settling in Rochester, a city known nationwide for it medical community, he did not apply for a job at the renowned Mayo Hospital. Nor did he take a job at St. Mary’s Clinic or Olmsted Medical Center. My father took a job at the prison.
Kevin’s current job, which is still a branch of the armed forces, The Uniformed Public Health Services, as a Wound Care Specialist at the Federal Medical Center, though a far departure from his other jobs at nursing homes and in care units, was perfectly suited to him. He has always had a great sense of humor, which he uses daily when dealing with difficult patients. My father said his favorite part of being a nurse is that, “It’s a wonderful blend of science and compassion.” At the prison, this takes on a whole new meaning. Many times, humor is his compassion. One of his most common responses to unresponsive patients is, “I’m not your mama.” Hardly a week goes by where a conflict is not resolved by singing some crazy song, such as “You just call, and I’ll be there...” Kevin’s methods are far from traditional, and yet strangely effective. The convicts always know what is expected. Although his job has its quirks, it is also very rewarding to see a patient, who has had a very destructive diabetic foot ulcer or a pressure ulcer, heal after a long, grueling treatment.
Kevin has worked extremely hard to get to his current position, studying for three years in graduate school before receiving his Master’s Degree of Science in nursing as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. Because of his work in this area, he gained the expertise to do research in the field, which he has been able to apply to his practice. Kevin is definitely a man interested in learning more about his field, whether or not he’s studying for graduate school or doing personal research. His focus as a nurse is to help his patients to heal and help his staff to learn to do their job better. Most importantly, he knows that he doesn’t have all of the answers and keeps pushing for improvement at the Federal Medical Center, by communication clearly with those around him, sometimes firmly, sometimes humorously, but always with compassion, and this is what makes him, in his own humorous words, a priceless “male nurse.”
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