NBHH welcomes Wallace couple as new providers

BY STORMY JAMESON

Two of the newest providers to join the North Big Horn Hospital staff are the husband-and-wife duo of John and Jena Wallace.

John has been hired to practice emergency medicine in the ER, while Jena will focus on family practice and will provide same-day care for patients needing to be seen immediately, but don’t have prior appointments with their provider.

The two are both originally from Connecticut but did not know one another growing up.

John went to the University of Maine and earned a degree in psychology, then returned to Connecticut to work in a psychiatric hospital before going back for his graduate degree. He then decided to go into nursing and pictured a career as a psychiatric nurse.

He met Jena at the psych hospital, and the two joked that she also worked there and was not a patient.

They both struggled getting into nursing schools in Connecticut, despite John having a bachelor’s degree, work experience and being an Army veteran. He decided to try his luck in North Carolina, and the schools were happy to take him there, so Jena followed him there to also get into the nursing school.

The couple got engaged a year later and were married a year after that when John finished his bachelor’s degree in North Carolina. He then worked for two years as an ER nurse before going to school again to pursue becoming a nurse practitioner and eventually getting another graduate degree.

After working for two more years in that field, he decided he might as well get his doctorate to have the highest degree in that field possible for liability purposes. He got an emergency nurse practitioner board certification, and he is dual board certified in that area and as a family nurse practitioner.

He has been practicing emergency medicine for 10 years now, mostly in North Carolina, but also in Nome, Alaska, where he would travel to small villages and do remote health care.

Four years ago, John began coming to North Big Horn Hospital as needed and would fly here to work for 10 days and fly back home to North Carolina and work his full-time job there.

“It began to be too much work, and I was getting burned out,” he said. “So we decided to make the move and migrate west and make Lovell our new home.”

JENA WALLACE

After getting a bachelor’s degree, Jena was working as an intern at a psychiatric hospital when she met John. Since she also struggled getting into nursing school, she decided to follow John to North Carolina from Connecticut.

Jena now has five degrees: associate in general studies, bachelor’s in psychology, associate in nursing, bachelor’s in nursing and master’s in nursing.

She is Family Nurse Practitioner certified and board certified and works mostly in same day urgent care settings.

After having their first child, Ellie, she stayed home and worked only as needed. When the couple moved to Alaska, she gave birth to their son, Reed.

John worked in Alaska for six months before a change was needed and the family was forced to move back with a one-month old baby during a blizzard.

The two came back and began working with Mountain Emergency Physicians. After John would make one of his 10-day trips to work at North Big Horn Hospital, Jena said that he would come home so happy from here before immediately going back to the grind and busy schedule in North Carolina.

“We were just existing,” Jena said. “I really didn’t want to move across country again with two kids, but when we came to visit, we went up to Devil’s Canyon Overlook looking for horses, and it was just so enchanting. Life is too short, so we decided we were going to do it.”

Jena sees patients in the clinic that are in need of same-day care but cannot see their normal physician that day.

“I’m loving it in the clinic here,” she said. “It is just a different pace. I feel like where we were it was numbers based. You saw the patient, you get them in and you get them out. There was no time to sit and listen to them. And the whole reason I got into healthcare was because I care about people and helping them.”

She is driven to make people feel better, do a good job and make a difference.

She also noted that John’s work schedule where they were was leading to burnout, and they were both starting to resent their jobs, which really factored into their choice to move to Lovell. 

“There is just a different balance here,” she said. “There is a huge sense of community and people really care about one another here.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Both of the Wallaces hope to bring a lot of their experience to our hospital. Between the two of them, they have a wide range of experiences in different areas and capacities and they see that as a strength.

Jena said they are very much opposites but work really well with one another.

“His brain never stops,” she joked. “In emergency medicine, he has to think quickly and get things done and move on to the next thing. I am very empathetic and like to listen and talk. So, we have an interesting dynamic, but we have always been able to work well together.”

With medicine changing and developing so often and quickly, their love of learning new things helps them remain good physicians.

“There is a new drug on the market every day,” John said. “So the fact that we both share a love of continued learning really benefits our ability to do our jobs in the best manner.”

Jena joked that the two of them still don’t know what they want to be when they grow up, but they will continue on their medical journey at North Big Horn Hospital and feel that it provides an environment that helps cultivate those opportunities.

As a family, they love to explore the outdoors and enjoy doing activities such as paddle boarding, kayaking, whitewater rafting, hiking and spending time together.

Music is also a passion of the Wallace family, and they enjoy playing the guitar, banjo, violin and cello.

They have also begun 3D and laser printing and enjoy printing fun objects on their laser at their home.

Ellie is now 8 years old, and Reed is 6, and both have begun school at Lovell Elementary School and are adjusting smoothly.

“We don’t feel like we are just existing anymore,” John said. “It feels like we are living our best lives, and North Big Horn Hospital allows for work/life balance.”