Our April Nurse of the Month is an experienced nurse described as “so responsive to patient needs and excellent at solving our challenges.” Megan Gossen has cared for patients all over the country – but now calls South Dakota home. “I never wanted to go back to the same hospital more than once,” she says. “I wanted to always have a new experience. I didn’t really ever think I’d find another hospital that felt like home. But Pine Ridge does.”
Hi Megan! Thanks for talking to us. How did you get into nursing?
I was actually that sick kiddo. I had asthma really bad when I was young and a nurse gave me medicine and applesauce. I told her no; my mom told her no. I was super tiny, like four or five. It was my first hospital experience – and I remember taking a bite of medicine and vomiting. And she just kind of looked at me.
After that, I wanted to be a nurse so that I could be nicer and I could listen to people when they were saying no. It was just a horrible experience for me.
Did you go to nursing school right out of high school?
I did my prerequisites straight out of high school. Nursing school wasn’t exactly super great for me. People say it’s like having a baby – once you’re done with it, you kind of forget about it. But nursing school was not that for me.
I got in right as soon as I did my pre-reqs. I was 19-20, super young. The first place I went was not very supportive. I couldn’t figure out how to study. I actually dropped out of nursing school then and I graduated with an Associates of Applied Science, which meant I had all my stuff to go to nursing school. I was driving down the highway one day. And it said something about vo-tech and having an LPN program.
I applied one Friday and I started the next with a one-to-one program. I ended up bouncing back into the same nursing school that had not been very helpful. I was having some really bad physical issues and migraines so I dropped out of nursing school yet again and took time off.
I went back to Oklahoma State here in Oklahoma City. It was a totally different experience. I’m still friends with some of my nursing instructors, and I still hear their lectures, even giving meds. His trauma lecture was, what does every trauma patient get? They get naked. And so I hear that in my head when we’re walking into a trauma room. He’s still somebody that if I have problems or I need help, he’s somebody I go back to and talk to.
So how long have you been a nurse?
I graduated with my LPN in 2009 and then I graduated with my RN in 2012.
I still tinker with my bachelor’s, but usually I get a little too bored with it because I would rather be working or doing something else. It’s not something that I have accomplished yet.
What facilities do you normally serve out of?
I have worked in a little bit of everywhere. My first LPN to RN job was in Weatherford, Oklahoma. It was actually like a 7-bed ER with NPs and PAs and we always had a night doc on, in a very rural community. So you could get either people coming in for medication refills, or you could get the trauma accident off the highway. It was feast or famine.
Then I wanted more experience, so I got some more education, some certifications, and I worked for another three years at Integris in Oklahoma City, which was transplants, strokes, STEMIs – all of the fun things that you’re going to see in the emergency department.
I’ve been traveling since 2018 and I’ve done level one all the way to our very rural, very critical access stuff that we do in Pine Ridge. I’ve done some time in Gallup. I’ve lived in Boston. I’ve been in New Hampshire. I’ve been in the Phoenix metro area a couple times.
You’re really well traveled.
I enjoy it. Pine Ridge is the only place I’ll come back to. It’s what feels like home, but I never wanted to go back to the same hospital more than once. I wanted to always have a new experience. I didn’t really ever think I’d find another hospital that felt like home. But Pine Ridge does.
That’s so nice. How did you connect with Tribal Health?
I was on assignment during COVID and would consistently look at the nursing Facebook groups. This was back when it was still Tribal EM. There was a job posting for Pine Ridge and I asked for more information. The rest is history; everything else just clicked. I was up there a little more than a month later.
I know you’ve been there a while. Are you close with your team?
Yes, Jenee and I are well. Jenee and I have gone and done the Cheyenne Frontier Days. We went and did one of the concerts there last year, Jenee, Mulmer – Megan Ulmer – and I. We have concert tickets for a big concert weekend in Maryland in September. So we’re going to take off and do that.
There’s always something that one of your team members are going to teach you. I love working with Euretta and Jenee and Megan Ulmer; it’s like the four of us always seem to be on my little stretch of days and it just works out.
What are your plans for the future?
My boyfriend is back in Oklahoma. He works in the pharmacy, actually in the emergency department. I never imagined that I would start dating, because after enough bad relationships, you just get done with it. Then I accidentally started dating somebody. And so I go back and forth not as often as I can, but more than I used to.
I kind of tinker with the idea of leaving once in a while and then something happens and it keeps me there longer. I don’t know what my plan is for the future forever.
What was the biggest lesson that you learned serving on Tribal lands?
Probably that patience is a virtue. Patients can be set in their ways and set in their mindsets. There’s always going to be a lesson, or maybe even a story or something that they need you to listen to. They want to talk to you because they don’t always get somebody that’s going to sit there and be receptive to what they have to say or something that they’ve learned or shared. Always take the time to pause and listen.
Do you have any regular patients that you’re close to?
One of our more cantankerous patients, I say his name and he turns around and looks at me and he stops being quite as ornery. I love an ornery patient because I’m pretty ornery myself.
There’s one patient that I call sister. We’ll start talking about her kids and her shoes and what she’s doing – and usually when we see her, something has happened. So I’ll say, “All right, what’s going on?” And sometimes she’ll share with you. Or sometimes she’ll just curl up and wait till a little bit later.
But you get your favorites and it’s harder to see when they have passed on or you get your patients who you really advocate hard for and you try to make things better.
What do you like to do for fun?
I love concerts, and that’s probably been the one thing with my big kid travel nurse money that I’ve spent on more than anything else. My boyfriend just gets a text of “Hey, I need you to ask off for this day” and we go to a show. This past Friday, we went to The Boys from Oklahoma show, which was Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours, Stony Laure – a bunch of the music that I listened to in college. They just did a four-day sold-out show in Stillwater, OK. So I wanted those tickets and I said, “All right, we’re going.”
In a couple of weeks coming up, I’ve got some Linkin Park tickets and there’s the concert Jenee, Mulmer, and I are going to. I love concerts. I love getting to travel.
What was the best concert you ever went to?
I love the Chili Peppers and I’ve actually seen them three times. My other favorite concert that I get to see in person is Fall Out Boy. I think I’ve seen them four or five times. But the Chili Peppers are super good.
My boyfriend’s favorite band is Foo Fighters, and I used to listen to them when I was younger. We’ve been three or four times and this past year in Denver, they were playing at Mile High Stadium. So I bought tickets and that was a great experience – it was a lot of fun being down there and we had field tickets so we were super close and there was lots of energy and it was fantastic.
Thank you, Megan!
