Jedwabny followed her parents in healthcare

CHELAN - With the idea of taking the best from both worlds, Jane Jedwabny followed her parents’ footsteps in healthcare as she became a Psychiatric Nurse.

“My father was a psychiatrist and my mom was a nurse, it was sort of marrying those two together it made perfect sense,” explained Jedwabny on her career in nursing school.

Before she began her journey in nursing, Jedwabny recived her B.A. in communications in Pennsylvania. She then went back and to study nursing. After graduation in 1982, the Ohio native, moved to Philadelphia where she began her first nursing job in a 25 bed psychiatric hospital. Jedwabny worked there for 13 years before moving to North Central Washington.

Jedwabny recalls her first glimpse of NCW as if it was yesterday.  “One September, as we were driving over Steven’s Pass and going through Leavenworth all of the sudden I heard Polka Music, you could smell the orchards and it was wonderful,” she said.

She made it up to Chelan, where she was interviewed for an open position as Program Director of the Sanctuary Department of the Lake Chelan Community Hospital & Clinics. “A couple weeks later, they offered me the job ... we decided to relocate and moved officially in 1995,” said Jedwabny.

It has been 22 years since she joined the team at LCCH, and she loves it. “I love the treatment team I work with. By far, this group surpasses any team I’ve worked with in terms of their compassion and willingness to put out 150 percent for the patients ... it’s a close group,” she mentioned.

Jedwabny describes the field she is in as “misunderstood,” the stigma psychiatric patients receive doesn’t seem to change. “A lot of people seem to view it as a choice ... it’s a brain disease, they just don’t decide to be an addict,” Jedwabny explained.

In the next couple of years, Jedwabny will be looking into retirement. However, she mentioned she wants to remain involved with the dual-diagnosis chemical dependency unit, “in any way, shape or form ... I can’t imagine my day without it.”

She was recently named 2018 Caregiver of the Year at Lake Chelan Community Hospital & Clinics. To her that recognition was overwhelming, “I wasn’t expecting it, that was huge honor,” she said.

Jedwabny encourages all to look into a career in healthcare to make a difference.