Hallie Coppi, Portola Skilled Nursing\u2019s new Director of Nursing (DON), seems to have had a career path carved out for her\u2014all she\u2019s needed to do is keep her eyes open and follow it. She didn\u2019t start out knowing she wanted to be a nurse or work in a skilled nursing facility, however.
\n\tCoppi graduated with a B.A. in Business Administration from Gonzaga University, Washington. Raised in Mt. Shasta, she became a wildland fire fighter. While she was living in Bend, OR and fighting wildland fires, she inquired at a skilled nursing facility there regarding possible administration positions, where she could apply her business degree skills. She was informed the only opening they had was for a caregiver, and they asked her if she\u2019d be interested in that position. She told them she\u2019d think about it.
\n\tAfter some consideration, Coppi agreed to take the job. \u201cI\u2019d never thought of this as an option before,\u201d she said. Turns out she loved the work, and from there on her career path took a sharp turn. She received her B.S. degree in Nursing from Drexel University in Philadelphia and planned eventually to work in skilled nursing.
\n\tIn the meantime, she and her fianc\u00e9 Casey, who worked alongside her fighting wildland fires in Philadelphia, moved to Portola where Casey took a job as a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service. Having grown up in Shasta, the environment here wasn\u2019t difficult to get used to. In fact, Coppi said she loves the small town atmosphere\u2014so much so that when she and Casey got married, they bought a house here.
\n\tHer first nursing position was in \u201cpsych nursing,\u201d she said. And, for the past two years, Coppi has been working in Reno at Renown\u2019s Cardiac ICU unit. \u201cI wanted that acute experience,\u201d she said. The downside, however, was that she felt disconnected from her Portola community. \u201cI\u2019d basically just been sleeping here,\u201d she added.
\n\tWhen the position as Director of Nursing at EPHC\u2019s Skilled Nursing Facility opened up, she jumped at the chance. It seemed made to order. Coppi said she feels more like she belongs now, and she enjoys meeting community members and getting to know them.
\n\tShe also loves the chance to work as the DON of Skilled Nursing at EPHC because it combines her training in administration and nursing. Even more importantly, because this is a small facility she is involved with both the staff and the patients. In a larger place, she said, she\u2019d just be a middle person directing staff, with no patient care responsibilities. At EPHC, however, she\u2019s directly involved with patients and their families.
\n\tCoppi has only been on the job for three weeks, and she said, \u201cI\u2019m just getting my feet wet,\u201d getting to know patients and families. \u201cOnce I put the pieces together, it\u2019ll be my ideal job.\u201d Helping in the transition is a staff that \u201cis a breath of fresh air. I\u2019ve never worked with a more compassionate staff anywhere,\u201d said Coppi. \u201cThey really care and treat the residents like their family. They also work really well together. Other places I\u2019ve worked, the nurses treat it as a job. Here, they help each other and the residents\u2014I really respect them for that.\u201d
\n\tInterestingly, staff members have also described Coppi as \u201ca breath of fresh air,\u201d and her positive outlook and enthusiasm can\u2019t help but add to the family feeling at Portola\u2019s Skilled Nursing Facility. It seems that Coppi, after choosing that sharp turn in her career path, was destined to arrive at EPHC\u2019s doorstep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hallie Coppi, Portola Skilled Nursing\u2019s new Director of Nursing (DON), seems to have had a career path carved out for her\u2014all she\u2019s needed to do is keep her eyes open and follow it. She didn\u2019t start out knowing she wanted to be a nurse or work in a skilled nursing facility, however. Coppi graduated with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}