Thanks for working here Thursday: Michelle Halford, CCMH Heptner Cancer Center

Campbell County Health is proud of its employees, and we want the CCH family and the Campbell County community to know about the good work that they do for this organization.

Allow us to introduce Michelle Halford, LPN, who works at the Heptner Cancer Center at Campbell County Memorial Hospital. Michelle transferred there in 2010 after working for 31 years on the CCMH Medical Surgical Unit. She had LPN training at Black Hills Vocational Technical Nursing School (Black Hills Vo-Tech) in Rapid City before moving to Gillette in 1979. Michelle has been with CCH for 38 years, and also has the credentials of mother, wife, nurse and grandma.

Michelle was inspired to work in health care from a child. “My grandfather suffered from strokes when I was small. As a teen I would spend time with him to give my grandmother a break for shopping and going to church. Being the second oldest of seven children, I also helped bandage my fair share of scraped knees and pulled splinters,” she says.

Her healthcare hero is Jean Jung, the director of Black Hills Vo-Tech, who encouraged Michelle to become a nurse to support myself and my children after divorce. “That was the best decision I ever made,” she says. She also credits Baerbel Merrill for always encouraging her to be the best she could be.

Outside of work, Michelle spends a lot of time just being a wife and grandmother—she has step-grandchildren in Gillette and two grand-daughters in Virginia, and is looking forward to a new grandchild in Gillette this winter. She’s also a quilter, and says that “It’s crazy to take perfectly good pieces of cloth, cut it up and then reassemble to form a totally new piece.” She also enjoys gardening, watching movies (mostly dramas and documentaries) as well as traveling with her husband, George, who she’s been married to for 10 years. “His family is in Scotland and England. So we try to get back for a couple of weeks at least every other year. Last summer we spent two weeks in Scotland and England and a week in Denmark with old family friends,” she says.

We asked Michelle what she likes most about working for CCH, and what excellence every day means to her. Check out her response:

“What I enjoy the most about my job is the patients and the staff. The people I work with are dedicated to the hospital and the Cancer Center. They give their all to the patients and to each other. CCH has been good to me—I work to give back something to the wonderful people and community who welcomed me in 1979 with open arms. I’ve watched this hospital grow and become more than the 14 bed hospital, four bed ICU and six bed maternity ward, two surgical suites and an eight bay ER and the ambulance run out of the annex buildings behind the old hospital. We have some of the best staff and doctors both past and present to be found anywhere in a five state region. We become family, brothers and sisters and friends. CCH staff has pulled together when one of our own has been in need and grieved when we have lost one of our own.

Aristotle once said, ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.’ For me, excellence every day is being and doing the best I can for my patients, co-workers and CCH.”

Thank you, Michelle for giving Campbell County Health and the Campbell County community nearly 40 years of service. We appreciate you.

Is there a CCH employee who went the extra mile or shows you extraordinary service? Give them a pat on the back by completing an Excellence Every Day card.