After four years of service, Beth Swenson is running unopposed for the Mary Greeley Board of Trustees on Nov. 2. 

Swenson worked at Mary Greeley Hospital for almost 28 years as a medical technologist before retiring. The main function of a trustee is to provide financial direction for the hospital. 

“Our mission is to advance health through specialized care and personal touch, and I think we’re really committed to that,” Swenson said. 

The pandemic created changes for the trustees and the hospital. The trustee meetings switched to a virtual format to lessen exposure, because all of the trustees are retired at this time. The trustees also receive weekly emails on COVID-19 patients the hospital is caring for, Swenson said. 

“When we have to make decisions, I think about how that would have affected me if I were still working there,” Swenson said. “And I hope the employees realize what part of my role is. but I am also wanting to keep the medical center very fiscally sound and I want to ensure we are giving high quality care.”

In addition to the care, Swenson said the hospital always tries to maintain as low of a nurse to patient ratio as possible so they are able to give the specialized care and personal touch to the patients. 

“It takes about four years to get used to your job, with me personally and I have stepped back until I understood the difference between daily operations and the leadership, the trustee role. Because they are two very separate things but as I stated before, when I make decisions as a trustee I try to keep the employees foremost in my mind,” Swenson said. 

Swenson said the nursing shortage throughout the country is terrible right now and Mary Greeley relies greatly on travel nurses. 

“We have had quite a number of them who have enjoyed working at Mary Greeley so much that they have quit their job as a traveling nurse and come to work at Mary Greeley as an employee,” Swenson said. “So I think we have a great place to work, and I want to keep it that way.”