Roberta R. Hilliger RN

Contact

Please visit the Contact Me page of this site to get in touch.

Profile

I’m a registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience, originally from Chicago and now living in South Dakota.  I have years of vast and detailed experiences working with adolescents, catatonics, psychiatric population, geriatric, hospice, families, legalities, police, pain control, wound care and at least 10 years palliative care.

I’ve spent 99% of my career as a charge nurse without supervision. I’m reliable with great attendance, able to make deadlines, adaptable to supervision and change, a contributor to care plans, good at brainstorming new ideas, creative, humorous, hardworking and well organised. I can work alone as I have on evening shifts as the only supervising nurse.

I have fallen in love with UK and have family there, so I feel it’s time to move on.  I want to live in Brighton, contribute to the community, face new challenges, explore holistic approaches to nursing and use new tools in healthcare.

Professional Experience

• Registered nurse for 35  years, with vast experience in multi-tasking and communications, working with palliative care for over ten years, adolescents, catatonics, psychiatric population, jail,  geriatric, hospice, admissions working with families, legalities, police, pain control and wound care.
• Volunteered to be admission and hospice nurse, and medication/chart/orders accuracy and recording nurse.
• Initiated various activity and recreation programs, instructed groups, directed staff, initiated paperwork streamlining to insure medication accuracy.
• As a psych nurse, I was involved in careful evaluation of safety and conditions and reaction/need for medications for behaviour involving contact with doctor and subsequent detailed nurses notes. Medical nursing involved all types of care: falls, evaluations, equipment when working alone, obtaining orders and skin care.
• Skilled nursing workplace experience includes ongoing assessments such as  for pain and medication needs, many types of safety and neurological evaluations, communication, gathering history and collaterals from families and various departments, medicare evaluations, calming patients down, yearly instruction in non-violent intervention, and nurturing adolescents as well as setting limits. Vast Palliative Care experiences.
• When working as jail nurse, I was assigned to evaluate for suicide precautions, and initiate or discontinue these evaluations on an ongoing basis.  Part of my boss’s requests were to work in admissions/booking to calm down aggressive situations.
• When working at skilled medical nursing facilities  I had an excellent rapport with families involved in hospice situations and needs for palliative care. Co-workers requested hospice problem solving and education.  Among other duties ,  I could meet palliative needs, evaluate for change in care plans for levels of  nursing needs, pain, empathy, touch, variety of appropriate and requested spiritual or comfort measures for my patients. It meant very much to me when I heard that even disoriented hospice patients called out for me after I had gone home.
• Task oriented with an ability to balance strong interpersonal skills with need for efficiency.
• Strong attention to detail and producing high quality work-references available.
• I welcome and encourage further learning proficiency, and palliative ranges and varieties of nursing and comfort measures gained from experience.
• Patient, persistent and diplomatic while providing explanations.
• Flexible with schedules, prefer evening shift or night shifts, working 12 hour shifts.
• Computer literate with self-taught skills on Macintosh, Windows, Internet, word processing, touch type and search engines.

Employment History

Long Term Adolescent Residency
Registered Nurse
April 2008-present

• One of two nurses working with abused, abandoned or troubled teenagers. Plan for care with tribal, Native American Social Workers, Department of Corrections and appointed guardians as well as families.
• Each Friday I spend the day with the Psychiatrist seeing our patients in my office, evaluating behaviour, needs, and medication review from reports I prepared the previous evening. I work an 8 hour shift preparing these, then a 16 hour day when the doctor does his care planning, then on through the weekend as charge nurse.
• Reference contact: Available upon request

Acute Skilled Nursing Facility
Registered Nurse
April 2003-July 2007

• Three years of narcotic key responsibility working with other registered nurses, physicians, Physical and Occupational Therapy care team and families to meet residents pain control measures, palliative care, knowledge of medications, evaluation and dispensing.
• Daily assessments according to Medicare Standards to evaluate for ongoing stay and Rehabilitation needs
• Acute Nursing Care, Medicare, extensive skin/tissue care nursing, extensive hospice opportunities and palliative care.
• Contact person for hospital hospice patients/ palliative care at our facilities.
• Reference contact: Available upon request

Beverly Health Care
Registered Nurse
Sept 2001-April 2003

• Acute Nursing Care. I was the only evening nurse.
• Skin care, wound care, tube feedings, Medicare evaluations, admissions, pain control, feeding and swallowing assessments, rehab, tracheotomy care, ostomy care,and teaching. Any acute medical situation was likely encountered here, as insurance companies limited hospital stay and this was a long term acute care facility with large population and rehabilitation services.

Victorian Assisted Living
Registered Nurse
Nov 1998-July 2001

• I was the only evening nurse at this Christian-based assisted living facility with extensive hospice and palliative care opportunities.
• The hospital brought their hospice patients to our facility because they didn’t have a hospice/palliative units at the time.
• Reference contact: Available upon request

Rapid City Regional Hospital Behaviour Health Unit
Registered Nurse
June 1980-April 1998

• Reference contact: Available upon request

Interests

I have been a radio DJ at a college station in Rapid City for 30 years. I enjoy music, listing to BBC podcasts, reading newspapers from around the world, swimming and travelling. I have also raised two children on my own.