New Director of Nursing at the New Richland Care Center

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Becky Schauer. I am the new Director of Nursing at the New Richland Care Center. I am the youngest of seven children. My parents are Wallace and the late Doris Stelter. I graduated from Waldorf-Pemberton High School and grew up on a farm south of Alma City. I started working at New Richland Care Center in 1994 while finishing LPN nursing school. I took a position working every other weekend as a CNA. When I finished LPN school, I moved to Waseca. I married Neal Schauer in 1994, and we have two children. Cailtin is 27 and Braden is 21. My husband started Southside Marine in Waseca in 1994 and sold the business in 2023. He is currently working at Waseca County Auto Sales in Waseca selling cars.

 

After many years of families, residents and staff telling me to go back to school to get my RN, I finally did. I worked full time at NRCC while going back to nursing school, and received my RN from Rasmussen University in Mankato in 2023. In my free time, I like to be at home, watch TV, be outside and just enjoy the quiet. I have enjoyed past cruises with my family and enjoy the beach. If you have been in my office, it is decorated in a beach theme with an addition of turtles. The turtles are in honor of a very special resident, who continued to encourage me to pursue my RN after being an LPN for 28 years. I was able to celebrate my graduation with her before she passed away.

 

As Director of Nursing, I would like to use all of the good attributes from past Director of Nurses and teach new staff and nurses all the things that I love about the care center and the things that have kept me here for the past 31 years. Once COVID hit, we lost several staff that decided to work elsewhere, work from home or get out of health care altogether. We then had to start using agency or travel staff to meet our staffing needs. Several of the agency staff we have worked with have been amazing, yet we still want to have our own staff. Administrator Bob Johannsen, Lindsey Schlaak and myself have been busy working on trying to have fewer agency staff and find people who are willing to be our “own” staff. Having our own regular staff can bring more continuity of care to the residents and will also bring our costs down. We continue to advertise for staff, yet it is still hard to find people who want to work, be reliable and have compassion. 

 

NRCC continues to strive to help members of our community and surrounding areas with all of their nursing needs. We continue to have Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapy services on site to help members of our community rehab after surgery or illness. We also continue to offer long term and Hospice services as well.