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Asmall town is like a still pond and big cities like the ocean.Throw a small pebble into the pond and the ripples arenoticeable. Throw a boulder into the ocean and no onewould even notice. You can do small things in small towns thathave more impact and effect than large things you can do inlarge cities.Jason Hull, Blogger, Idaho (paraphrased)Big Country Hospital, Oyen“I thought I would be here for a year,” Patricia (Pat) Stober, LPN says with a laugh asshe talks about working at Big Country Hospital in Oyen for 21 years. “My husbandis from Hanna, and found a job in Oyen ‘close to home.’ In Oyen you don’t leave, oryou leave and come back. It feels like a big extended family: sometimes frustratingbut always there….people who have your back.”There is an irony inherent in working as an LPN in rural healthcare today: “big city”perspective can be tempted to think the rural LPN workload is a bit easier, or tasksaren’t as complex. The truth is more revealing as Pat describes an incident with acomatose diabetic patient in seizure. “I was asked to assist. I quickly got a glucosekit, injected a gluco gun, and got an IV running.” The patient was soon on the mend.“It’s empowering when you know what your role is, your role is deeply respectedwhere you work, you know what to do, and you do it,” Pat says. “It feels really goodwhen you make an immediate difference for a patient.”That doesn’t mean rural healthcare doesn’t have a distinctly rural flavour. Pat talksabout one of the nurses walking down the hall one day. “I asked her what the thingthat looked like a tassel was on the back of her leg. Turns out it was antelope fur. Amotorcyclist hit an antelope and she had been picking the fur out of the chaps.”>care | spring 2013 9