Saltville, Virginia

Southwest Virginia is the place to be!

Hi, my name is Jill Talbert and I am a registered nurse in a Community Health Center (CHC) in southwest Virginia. This month, I have been asked to blog about my experiences as a CHC nurse. I grew up in a very small town in southwest Virginia called Saltville. Our town has a current population of about 2,500 people. I was the first of two daughters for my parents and I had always known since I was about ten that I wanted to be a nurse. This is probably because my mom always wanted to be a nurse, but didn’t have the opportunity. I entered nursing school the summer right after I graduated high school.

A lot of people asked why I chose to stay in my small hometown instead of moving away to a larger town or city. My reply is: I want to raise my sons the way I was raised and I want to give back to the community I was raised in. My Community Health Center, Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems, Inc. is very near and dear to my heart. I began my career as a CHC nurse 23 years ago.

When I was hired, I have to admit, I did not know what a CHC was. I was hired as an office nurse working in two physician office. I learned a lot of new things not taught in nursing school such as how to take x-rays (which nurses aren’t allowed to do now without a license). I loved the people I worked with and the schedule was very convenient for my family, but I especially loved the patients I cared for and I like to think they loved me back.

Hello from Jill Talbert and southwest Virginia

Jill Talbert’s life seems to have come full circle.  Today Jill is the Clinical Director for Southwest Community Health Systems in the same building where she was born and she loves it this way. Jill is very satisfied that she is able to be a RN and Clinical Director in the small town she grew up in – what she enthusiastically describes as a beautiful rural area that is a good place to raise a family.

As a young girl, Jill wanted to be a nurse – maybe because her mother had aspired to be a nurse but never pursued it and this carried over.  Jill completed Appalachian Tri-College Nursing Program and then accepted a temporary position with the Health Department. Apparently, Jill’s mom also instilled the value of giving back to the community, because Jill was attracted to community health nursing and upon the end of her temp position; she immediately started to work for Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems – 23 years ago!  In the beginning, Jill appreciated that her work was close to her home although she confessed that initially she had no concept what a community health center really was.

Today Jill appreciates the balance of her professional life with her family life with her husband, and two energetic sons. Thanks to her boys, her family life is “pretty much sports – whatever is in season,” although she also likes to read and travel.  Jill is happy with personally knowing every principal and teacher that her sons have, living in a safe area, and having the opportunities to go camping, horseback riding, and “all that outdoorsy stuff.” 

But what really completes this satisfaction is the support Jill has been given to balance her family and profession. As a Clinical Director Jill does not spend as much time directly treating patients but she provides the same supportive environment she was given to allow other healthcare practitioners to care for patients. And these aren’t just any patients – these patients are her family and friends in this close knit community.

Jill calculates her success with the stories of patients who were cared for because the Community Health Center is here. She says she could go somewhere else and make more money but it’s about how you live your life and giving to others.

When Jill is interviewing someone for a clinical position in Community Health, she typically expresses her job satisfaction this way – “  At the end of the day when you lay down and put your head on your  pillow, you know you have given back to the community, and rest easier at night, knowing you do a good thing.”