Bartlett to retire from Carbon County Public Health

After nearly 32 years of service in the Platte Valley, Sue Bartlett is stepping down from her position as public health nurse supervisor for Carbon County Public Health.

Barlett plans to officially retire from her position Jan. 2, 2014, but will be completely filled by Toni Rietveld, who began her first day Nov. 4. Rietveld is currently undergoing a two-month orientation for the position, with much help and encouragement from Bartlett.

Bartlett began as a staff nurse with Carbon County Public Health in March of 1982, and felt that now would be a good time to retire as the county's public health nurse supervisor.

"Life changes and I've had some major health issues the past three years," she said. "I just thought maybe it's just time to do some things I want to do. My mom and dad have had a bad year, so I would like to spend more time with them. I'd like to do more family things, but I won't be doing any world traveling or anything like that."

Rietveld is from Baggs and had worked in Craig, Colo. for the past seven years. She was a public health nurse with the Visiting Nurses Association's Craig office, and has been a nurse for more than 20 years.

"I'm excited for lots of things, and I love the community and look forward to serving them," Rietveld said. "Moving here has been something I always wanted to do for a long time, and I got blessed to get an opportunity to come. This has been a place I always thought I'd like to come and live and serve in. We've come here for years and I've been getting the newspaper for about 12 years, so I kept in touch with things that way."

Since the beginning of November, Bartlett has been serving as a mentor for Rietveld and getting her used to working in a on-nurse agency. She called the position a unique job where one gets to learn many different things.

"In the Rawlins office they have maybe five nurses, and each nurse may take a particular program," Bartlett said. "Here we have to know how to do everything, and you can start seeing people from birth to death. The variety is wonderful, and people don't really come here, we usually go to them."

Bartlett said she has also seen a lot of changes with the county in the three decades she has been the supervisor.

"We used to do a lot of in-home visiting and home health, and the course of direction is changing a bit, where we're getting away from individual patient care and going more toward community education," she said. "We are doing more things with groups and still have a few people that we see individually for different programs. We still do a lot of immunizations, baby care and pre-natal care, but not like doctors. We've been teaching and helping people, especially first-time moms know what to do with pregnancies and parenting type issues."

Rietveld is already making herself at home with the position, and has begun training on program called "Healthy Babies," which is a program geared toward new parents. She said she is eager to jump in and learn everything there is to know about her job.

"There is a lot to learn and it is a wide variety, but I think that's also one of the positives too," Rietveld said. "It's kind of nice to go from a baby to a nursing home or someone at home. The travel is really nice too, and our area encompasses Hanna, Medicine Bow, Elk Mountain, Encampment and down to the Colorado border south of Encampment."

Less than two months into it, Rietveld said she is already enjoying all aspects of the job, and looks forward to coming into work each day. She said she enjoys the variety of tasks involved with each workday.

"I'm really enjoying like the home visits with the adults, and getting to know them and gaining some trust," Rietveld said. "Everyone tells me I have big shoes to fill and I always remind them that Sue wants to retire. She's been doing this for so long and they love her, so I'm really grateful to have the time with her to learn this. We've had patients come in and talk about coming to her when they were kids, so there has been a lot of generational visits with her in one way or another."

Bartlett said there are many things she will miss about her job, and mentioned that was part of the reason she kept it for more than 30 years.

"It was a good job for family, since I no longer had to do shift work, and I was working Monday through Fridays with weekends off and holidays off," she said. "I also met so many people throughout so many communities. Those relationships were my favorite part and what I'll miss most, and hopefully gas won't be too high and I can continue to visit people."

With so many developed relationships in the community, Rietveld said she can already feel the love and appreciation that people have for Bartlett.

"There's a great love in this community for her, and I see why because just working with her for the short time I have, she's an exceptionally special person," she said. "It's genuine and it's real and they all know Sue wants to retire, but they accept that and are very welcoming of me, which I'm grateful for. There's a genuine loss their beginning to feel, and i feel that with them. It's good to be able to have an opportunity to develop those kinds of relationships with people, and Sue has done that."

Bartlett said she is confident that Rietveld is the right person to fill her shoes.

"I've had some real difficulties deciding if I am going to retire, but working with Toni I am at peace and know it's going to go into good hands," she said. "We have been working together for almost two months, and she's going to do so great."

Rietveld understands how leaving a long-term career would be hard for Bartlett, after many years spent helping and developing friendships with community members. At the same time, she is also excited to be the new face for the public health nurse supervisor position.

"It has kind of been Sue's baby for years and is hard to let go of, and I admire her for her hard work," she said. "She has been a great mentor here in the short time we've had together, and I still ask her things all the time. I have talked to friends recently and everyone asks me how I have liked my new job, and I tell them I love it. I want to be like a sponge and soak in every single bit as much as I can."

A farewell party and open house for Bartlett takes place from 2-3:30 p.m. Thursday, at Carbon County Public Health, 201 S. River St. in Saratoga.