Nurse Practitioner Kuper knew early on healthcare was for her

    Jamie Kuper knew in high school that healthcare would be the eventual profession for her.
    As a new Nurse Practitioner at Chase County Community Hospital and Clinics, she brings a wealth of nursing and medical experience to the job.
    Her first day was March 1, and she’s enjoying her new role.
    “It’s nice to be able to now use the knowledge I’ve worked so hard to gain the last two years,” she said.
    She likes the staff at the local facilities and is enjoying getting to know people from the Chase County area.    
    Hospital CEO Abby Cyboron said they are “super excited” to get Kuper started and she is “a great addition who brings a lot of experience in and passion for rural medicine” to CCCH and its clinics.
    “Her understanding of rural  medicine is so important, and she’ll be joining an already outstanding medical staff,” she said.
    Since January, as her NP credentialing process was underway, Kuper has worked as an R.N. at CCCH. That helped, she said, to get to know the staff and operation of the hospital.
    The former Jamie Johnson of Grant recalled babysitting for an R.N. in her home community while in high school, and is where the healthcare bug began.
    Her mother, Denise, suggested before she decided on nursing as a college major, that she “test the waters first,” Kuper said.
    So, as a high school junior she took a CNA job at Perkins County Health Services “and just loved it,” she said.
    After PCHS graduation in 2006, she attended Iowa Lakes Community College in Emmetsburg, Iowa, where she received an Associate Degree in Nursing in 2009.
    Her Bachelor of Science in Nursing came in 2014 from the University of Phoenix.
    In June 2009, she began working for Landmann-Jungman Memorial Hospital, a small facility in Scotland, South Dakota as a staff/clinic R.N.
    Wanting more experience in a larger facility, she took a position later that year with Sanford Health in Chamberlain, where she also worked in the ER, surgery, labor and delivery and the nursery.
    Living in Mitchell, South Dakota at the time with husband Ryan, and after their first child was born, she took a position with Queen of Peace Hospital in Mitchell, where she was a float R.N. from 2011-14, working in a variety of areas as needed, she said.
    The Kupers had talked of living in Wyoming, she said, and when an opportunity for a position opened in Wheatland, “we went west.”
    There, she served as RN Manager at Platte County Memorial Hospital from 2014-16. From 2016-17, she moved to the RN Case Manager position at Platte County.
    After the couple’s third child was born, they moved back to Grant to be closer to family, she said.
    Since then, she’s worked for Great Plains Health in North Platte, Melissa Memorial Hospital in Holyoke, Colorado, and back where it all started for her, at Perkins County Health Services.
    While working, she was taking classes toward her Master of Science in Nursing-Family Nurse Practitioner Degree through Colorado Technical University, receiving the degree in July 2022.
    Her most recent stint with PCHS, among other duties, involved documentation and medical coding improvement, which she believes is a big plus now that she is working as a provider.
    “It’s super helpful for those important pieces needed for insurance,” she said.
    As an R.N., she worked under a provider’s orders. Nurse Practitioners can function independently, she said.
    “That’s why it’s so crucial to have mid-level providers in our smaller hospitals,” she said, which is where she wants to be.
    “I’ve worked in larger facilities and I believe in these smaller, critical access hospitals,” she said.
    “We can do so much with our limited resources.”
    While she’s now working at the clinic in Imperial and hospital, she will eventually be working one day a week at the Wauneta clinic.
    Kuper will continue to live in Grant, where she and husband Ryan are raising three children—sons Koltyn, 12, and Karsyn, 10, and daughter Kyanna, 6.
    He is employed by the NE Department of Transportation out of the Grant office.
Another NP expected
    CEO Cyboron said hospital administration has signed an employment agreement with Ali Jablonski of Imperial, who is completing a Doctorate Degree and will graduate in May.
    It’s expected she will  join the CCCH medical staff in the fall.