Each month, Eagle Radio in Great Bend will recognize groups or individuals that make a big impact on our community. This Appreciation Month is highlighting the Barton County Health Department.
By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
Lindsey Ensley started working at the Barton County Health Department as a public health nurse about three years ago. One of her jobs is to head up the Department’s emergency preparedness program. Little did she know that she would be facing an emergency like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emergency preparedness requires a lot of time and planning.
“My portion of that is to be in charge of having a continuation of operation plans if there was an emergency and we couldn't function out of this building,” she said, referring to the County Health Department building on the corner of Kansas and Lakin streets.
Ensley meets on a regular basis with EMS, fire, Red Cross and hospital officials throughout the county. She also confers with emergency and health care leaders in central Kansas.
“We have to meet monthly with our regional emergency preparedness group which involves five other counties in our area: Rice, Pawnee, Saline, McPherson and Stafford,” she explained. “We all meet monthly and we share supplies if needed and keep each other up to date on emergency preparedness.”
But Ensley’s work involves more than just meetings. She schedules and participates in emergency exercises. One such exercise was scheduled just before the pandemic began last year.
“There was a state [of Kansas] exercise for, believe it or not, a pandemic that was being worked on before Covid started,” she remembered. “And then of course we were living it real life so that wasn't necessary anymore."
So what led Ensley into a public health career? It wasn’t a straight path. She grew up in Great Bend and graduated from Great Bend High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in human ecology at Kansas State which prepared her for an eight-year career as an early childhood education teacher. She had returned to Great Bend where she was operating a children’s daycare at her home when she started thinking about a career change.
“I was kind of at a crossroads. My kids were getting older. I was feeling like home daycare wasn't for me anymore,” she recalled. “That meant either going back to school and getting a degree in special education - because that is kind of the next step once you have your early education degree - or doing something different. So I prayed about it a lot. My dad was pretty ill at that time as well. And seeing the care that he got, that just kind of drew me towards nursing.”
Ensley decided to head out to Barton Community College to study nursing.
“Once I got into the program, it just felt right. It just felt like that was what I was supposed to do, where I was supposed to be,” she said.
While earning her nursing degree, Ensley worked as a certified nursing assistant at what was then the Great Bend Regional Hospital (now the University of Kansas Health Systems Great Bend Campus). After becoming a registered nurse, she worked the night shift at the hospital.
Ensley has been married for almost 16 years. She and her husband have a 14-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter. Wanting to find a daytime job so she could spend more time with her family, Ensley joined the County Health Department. And then the pandemic swept the world.
“It did affect my family,” she remembered. “I was here a lot, lots of overtime, lots of weekends spent down here doing investigating and working on Covid cases. And then once we got vaccines, there was a lot of work in that, a lot of nights and weekends, getting plans together and getting that vaccine out as quickly as we could.”
“So my family did not see me as much during that time frame,” she said. “It's getting better. We're mostly back to regular hours now. I think they're proud of me."
Ensley said she is proud of the people she worked with during the height of the pandemic.
“We have an amazing team here,” she commented. “I would not have wanted to go through all of that with any other group of people. I learned how resilient I can be. And watching my co-workers through adversity, it was a hard time. It was difficult, stressful and we stuck together for each other. We learned a lot in the process for sure."
In addition to her leadership role with emergency preparedness, Ensley is also in charge of the family planning program for Barton County. That puts her in touch with people who come to the Health Department for medical care and advice.
"I like patient care more than anything. That's my favorite part,” Ensley said. “I worked in the hospital before I came here, and I really worried about coming to a quote-unquote office job. But a lot of our time here is spent with patients doing services for them, providing care in a variety of ways. We do a lot of different services, so I really enjoy that.”
Now that the pandemic is mostly in the rear-view mirror, Ensley believes the people of Barton County can expect their Health Department to return to what it used to be.
"Covid had been our focus for over a year now, and it's nice to get back to other services which we had to stop for a while,” she reflected. “We were so overwhelmed. It's so nice to get back to normal. It's kind of a new normal, but it's really good, it's a good feeling."
Read the previous Appreciation Month stories by clicking HERE.