Employee Spotlight 13 November 2019
Amy Farstad, RN
Amy Farstad is a nurse at Ivinson Medical Group's surgical clinic where she treats patients for woundcare.
Amy Farstad has always led an active lifestyle. When she started school, she went into Kinesiology, finding as much interest in studying movement as she did in staying in movement.
Always on her feet, Amy came into nursing because of the variety it offered and she hasn’t looked back since.
Amy started her nursing career at Ivinson Memorial Hospital working on Med/Surg. For the last three years, she has been working as an RN alongside Dr. Jack Ullrich in Ivinson Medical Group’s surgical clinic. This January, she will celebrate her six-year anniversary.
Since joining Dr. Ullrich, Amy has obtained her wound care certification which has allowed her to assist in the many wound care cases she regularly sees. It was quickly realized that there were often more wounds than there was availability to care for them, that is when Amy knew she could do more.
“Once the idea was thrown out there to do more wound care, I got my certification,” Amy said. “I was doing a little bit more wound care, then when I got my sharps debridement I was like, okay let’s do it,” and Amy took the leap.
It was with her certifications, and no shortage of blood, sweat and tears that the wound care clinic came to life.
“Ivinson has been very supportive,” Amy explained, giving credit to IMG practice manager Colleen Lang and Dr. Ullrich, “Their support has really helped push and get the wound care clinic started and off the ground.”
Wound care patients see a general surgeon for an initial plan for wound care, determining frequency and dressing options. Subsequent visits are scheduled with Amy on one of her days dedicated to wound care.
Providing clinic based wound care, Amy is able to tend to a variety of wounds and treat them in ways previously unavailable in Laramie, like total contact casting. Total contact casts are typically used on diabetic ulcers as a way to offload the pressure on a wound, allowing it to heal.
“Every wound is going to be different, some are more complex than others and you have to try two or three different dressings before we find one that works. We see a lot of venous stasis ulcers, various diabetic wounds, chronic wounds that aren’t healing on their own and occasionally, we will see patient’s from the cancer center with radiation wounds.”
Amy is caring for wounds two days a week and is currently yielding a full schedule on those days.
“I hope it’s filling a gap here at the hospital and in the community, providing wound care closer to home for our patients.”