New DON at senior care facilities found way here from Haiti

    A search for a Director of Nursing at Imperial Manor and Parkview-Heights is finally realized as staff at the facilities welcomes Yves Montina.
    Montina stepped into his position two weeks ago after a long and interesting journey to make Imperial home for his family.
    Montina and his wife, Johane, have two children. Dorian is 7 years old and Rayleigh is 5. Both children are attending Chase County Schools.
    CEO Lynne West interviewed Montina via Zoom, while he was employed as a registered nurse in Worcester, Massachusetts.
    West said it’s not easy for someone to emanate their warmth and true personality through a video, but Montina did.
    “He radiated a calm demeanor and had an infectious smile that made you want to smile back. We are so glad to have him here,” she said.
    She said the staff took an immediate liking to him.
    “They all think it’s really neat that he speaks four languages,” West chuckled.
    Montina’s path to his new position did not come about in a usual way.
An interesting journey
    Montina was born and raised in Haiti. After completing the usual years of schooling, he entered a program offered in Haiti which would eventually earn him a medical degree.
    Following his medical schooling in Haiti, Montina had to finish his last two years of medical school in Cuba which required that he learn Spanish first in order to understand his classes. His native languages in Haiti were Creole and French. He was about to become trilingual.
    He received a general medical degree in 2008 and returned to Haiti to complete a required one-year internship before being licensed.
    “I worked in a social service program (internship) for one year but with no pay. In 2009, I received my medical license and was employed as a physician in a private service,” he said.
    For the next few years, he worked as a physician in emergency rooms, medical clinics and hospitals, and in 2014, took on a supervisory position over a clinical staff. By 2015, Montina was following a demanding work schedule as a full-time physician in a clinic by day and a full-time ER physician by night.
    “Over the next two years everything started to change in Haiti. People used to respect doctors and medical facilities, but violence in Haiti was happening more in the ER ward. I felt like my life was compromised,” Montina explained.
    After talking it over with his wife, they decided to come to America. In November 2017, he and his family arrived in the U.S.—not speaking a word of English.
    There was another long journey ahead to prepare for the medical field in the U.S. First, Montina had to learn English, which he studies for the next 18 months by attending an adult English-learning class.
    “It would take time to prepare to pass the U.S. Medical License Boards. But it was going to take too long, and I needed something faster,” he said.
    Montina and his wife discussed the situation again, he said, and realized there were two possibilities—take the extra time for the physician requirements in the U.S. or obtain a nursing license which would be quicker.

    They decided he would go to nursing school to get the courses he needed to become an RN.
    Medical school and nursing school are very different, he said, because the perspective is very different. Medical school focuses more on diagnostics and treatment, whereas nursing school focuses on different areas including administering a doctor’s care plan, monitoring a patient’s condition and educating patients on their condition, he said.
    Montina completed his schooling and passed the nursing examination, receiving his RN license from Florida in January 2022.
    Soon after, he took a position as an RN in a  Worcester, Massachusetts medical clinic, which is where CEO West connected with him for the local DON position.
    “I’ve never worked in a care facility before, but I liked the idea of forming longer relationships with the residents. I thought about my mom who is 78, and I feel the same compassion and regard for the residents here as I do her,” Montina said.
    When asked what attracted him to a small rural town after having lived in large populated areas, he said he and his wife liked quiet places, and they felt a small town would be safer for their children.
    “We want our kids to attend a smaller school where they can get a good education and have better interactions with other children. They haven’t been attending that long, but they are happy and say they have made lots of friends,” he added.
    “I want to give my best to this community and provide the best care possible to the residents. This should feel like their home,” said Montina.
    Among Montina’s other interests is oil painting. He said some of those paintings might find their way onto his office walls.