Central Health Care nurse celebrates 50 years caring for residents

Whenever the residents at Central Health Care are in need of help, Charlene Boettcher is always the first to respond. It doesn’t matter how busy she is, or if she’s just gotten off a 16-hour double shift, colleagues and residents alike say Boettcher has always been there to lend a hand.

Recently, Boettcher celebrated 50 years of caring for the elderly and infirm at Central Health Care, where she’s garnered a sterling reputation for her compassion towards residents and willingness to go the extra mile to meet their needs.

“She really treats them like they were her father, her mother that she’s caring for. She goes above and beyond,” said Jen Juarez, a Central Health Care nursing aide who has known Boettcher for 18 years. She considers her both a mentor and friend, having learned directly from Boettcher when she started nursing at Central Health Care years ago.

“She doesn’t just bring them their pills or take their vitals, she makes sure that they have the right kind of juice on the tray to eat,” said Juarez. “If they need an extra blanket, even if they need help rearranging furniture in their room, Charlene does whatever she can to make them more comfortable.”

Boettcher said she has always enjoyed spending time with the elderly, it’s what attracted her to Central Health Care in 1974 when she began working there as a certified nursing aide. When she was first offered a job at the nursing home out of high school, Boettcher was just supposed to curl hair, but when they asked her to fill an open position for a nursing aide, she soon found her calling.

Back then, Boettcher said the nursing home had a much larger population of around 110 patients, often holding three beds in each room. That’s no longer the case today, as Central Health Care has downsized to a 40 bed facility.

After three years working as a CNA, Boettcher went on to spend more than 30 years as Central Health Care’s laundry supervisor. While the role gave her some contact with residents, Boettcher was given the opportunity to be more involved in their care when then-owner Karl Pelovsky not only encouraged her to go into nursing school, but offered to foot the bill.

Boettcher graciously accepted the offer and, from 2006 to 2008, she was able to work on her nursing degree at South Central College all while continuing her position at Central Health Care.

“I love my job, I love the elderly. I’ve always been treated well. It’s my second family, my home away from home. If I’m not home, I’m here,” said Boettcher.

For Boettcher, that’s no exaggeration. As her colleagues will attest, she has enough energy to come in for a double-shift of monitoring medications, checking vitals, treating and feeding patients, before going home to weed the garden, bake a pie, host her card club, sleep for a couple hours, then come back in ready to do it all again.

“She can move around faster than people who are quite a bit younger than her, she’s just all over the place and never seems to be tired. I don’t know how she does it,” said Wanda Roethler, who has known Boettcher as a colleague at Central Health Care and now as a patient at the facility.

“She’s the kind of nurse that will help you with anything,” Roethler continued. “Lifting, or if you have trouble with some other kind of care that you need help with, she’s always willing to help.”

Beverly Tindell, a fellow resident at Central Health Care, agreed that Boettcher is a tireless worker. Often working double shifts and having been around for 50 years, she’s one of the most familiar faces in the community.

”She’s been around for a long time and she makes this place, I’ll tell you that right now,” said Tindell. “All the residents like her.”

Boettcher credits her seemingly boundless energy to her upbringing as a hardworking farm kid on a farmstead near Kilkenny. To this day, she lives on the family farm of her husband Mike, where they raised two children together.

“Back then, the farm kid had to work hard and work long hours and it just stayed in my system,” said Boettcher.

Her passion and energy for the job hasn’t gone unnoticed by her fellow nurses. In 2016, Boettcher was recognized statewide by the Care Providers of Minnesota with the Excellence in Quality Care award. Juarez said it isn’t trophies that motivate Boettcher, however, but the progress she makes with her patients.

“She gets excited when a resident’s wound heals, that she’s been working on for so long. When they finally get strong enough to go back home. She celebrates small successes, things that support the patients,” said Juarez. “That’s, I think, her joy. And she gets that joy every day, because the residents’ faces light up when they hear Charlene is working.”