Meet Brenda Engle, APRN, CCH November 2018 Provider of the Month

Our providers are experts... and great people too! Meet Brenda Engle, APRN, Campbell County Health’s November 2018 Provider of the Month.

Psychiatric nurse practitioner Brenda Engle had an interesting journey to Gillette, Wyoming from her home state of Massachusetts. Brenda sees clients in Behavioral Health Services at Campbell County Memorial Hospital (CCMH), but began a career helping others by managing nonprofit clinics and group homes for people with disabilities and mental health issues. Somewhat jokingly, Brenda realized she could do just as good a job providing care as the clinicians she employed, so at age 36 she went back to community college and started on the path to become a registered nurse. Brenda then completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing and a Master’s of Science in Nursing from Regis College in Weston, Mass, becoming a mental health nurse practitioner.

One of the reasons Brenda is drawn to this work is the opportunity to see people get better. She credits the many women who were her mentors over the years and listened to her when she needed someone. Brenda says working in a small community in a rural state can be challenging, and her clients have problems with things like access to health insurance and affording their medications. And though suicide is a problem everywhere, it can really affect the people in a small town, where the chances are greater that the person is well known by others.

Brenda worked in a variety of hospital and community settings as a nurse practitioner, including acute care facilities and dementia units in Massachusetts. Just divorced at 42, she was happy with her grandchildren, and her career in private practice. Brenda learned to ride a motorcycle because it was something her father loved, and took a trip to the Sturgis motorcycle rally where she met Jared Engle.

After a long-distance relationship Brenda calls ‘an adventure’, she married Jared and moved to Wyoming, where she and her husband enjoy traveling with their RV, or back to Massachusetts to visit grandchildren, and motorcycling with friends all summer long.

Thank you Brenda Engle, for providing our patients with excellent care.