Gesaking Is Responder Of The Week

Mona Gesaking has dedicated her responder career to Grant County.

A 1980 graduate of Ulysses High School, all of her time spent in the medical field has been right here.

"I've always been interested in the medical field," Gesaking said. "I worked in a pharmacy through high school and then I became an  EMT (emergency medical technician)."

Gesaking completed her nursing at Seward County Community College in Liberal.  She has been a registered nurse now since 2008.

When asked what the most rewarding part of being a nurse was, Gesaking said it is the people.

"Watching people get better and helping people at their worst times - helping kind of ease some of the pain," she said. "I worked in surgery for about  12 years, and I really loved that as well."

Her entire nursing career has been at Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses.

"It is the only place I've  worked as a nurse," Gesaking said. "I've been at Bob Wilson since 2003 - for 23 years."

The longevity with the local hospital has resulted in Gesaking knowing her patients very well.

"I know most of the residents here," Gesaking said. "I went through high school here and graduated here. I moved away for about 17 years, but I came back."

Before becoming a nurse, Gesaking worked in home day care - another profession of taking care of people.

Gesaking said the most difficult part of her job is when a patient doesn't survive.

"Those are always heartbreaking," she said, adding it is even more difficult when you are taking care of people you know and agreeing it also makes her more invested in their care.

Gesaking hopes to retire within a couple of years and "slow down".

Gesaking has five grown sons, the youngest is 25-years-old. Two of her sons spent their school years mostly in Florida, however, three, including a set of twins, graduated from here. Her twin boys graduated in 2018.

One of her sons now lives in Garden City, Kan.

She and her mother, Barbara Trotman, still live in Ulysses. Her father, Frank Trotman, passed away.

"He was the news editor for the Ulysses News in the past and also worked for KULY radio," Gesaking said. Her three brothers, one of whom, used to work for Southwest Paint and Body, no longer live here.

She does still have some nieces and nephews in the area.

Gesaking encourages others to pursue a nursing career.

"It's well worth doing, because there are so many avenues you can take," Gesaking said. "There is school nursing, public health nursing, litigation - there are so many avenues you can always find your niche. Nursing isn't for everybody. You can have the caregiver role or a more paperwork/administrative type role."

Gesaking says there is a lot that Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital has to offer.

"I think everybody who works there is very caring," she said. "All of the nurses and providers are very caring. They want to do the very best for our residents. We aren't just a band-aid station. We do so much more and some times it is life or death. I'm really happy we have the facility here. We may not do as much as we used to do, but we still do an awful lot. And, we get patients transferred to a higher level of care as needed."

When asked what the best part was about working in Ulysses, Gesaking said it is all about community.

"Knowing so many people you have been raised with and now their parents at this point - a lot of the care is to classmates' parents who are entering their golden years," she said. "Nursing is just a very rewarding job."