Cara Burgess started working with Haven in 2014 and is currently one of our Physical Therapist Assistants at our home health branch, Haven Home Health. She sat down with us for the 10th anniversary interview about her time here at Haven.
What was Haven like when you started?
Small [laughs]. It was just more intimate, because it was smaller, so everybody knew everybody, but it was good. Nothing’s changed, I would say, in that aspect of people knowing each other, but yeah, it was a good time.
What drew you to Haven?
Well, actually a friend had gotten a job with Haven, and I obviously was looking for a therapy job, considering I was fresh out of school and didn’t have much tie-ins with places. She got hired in December and I was hired in March and just went from there.
What has made you stay with Haven?
I would honestly say the patients. I mean, getting to go and meet so many new people, getting to hear their life’s story, you just get this bond with them. But then, staying with Haven, you get that rapport with the staff and with everybody and it’s hard to change. I would say the patients because I just love the idea of being able to go out and help and make them feel better and then each day is different. There’s no going to the same office, the world is your office, and you just travel every day.
What has been the biggest change over your time here?
I don’t know. I mean obviously, we grew. We went from a small building with 10 people to having six outpatient clinics, jumping over to Joplin, our area has expanded immensely. With that, you grow big, sometimes you have to reel it back in to be able to focus on the priority of the people, and so right now we don’t have as many outpatient clinics but that’s almost better because we get to focus more on the home heath aspect of things and we have the 417 Home Care group and then the Hospice group so we’re just able to offer a lot more to the community at this point.
What is your favorite memory of working at Haven?
That’s so hard. I was trying to think of that earlier. There’re so many different stories with so many different patients, but if I had to direct it to connecting to Haven as a company, it would probably be our first work picnic. We had it at the office up on Jackson Street and it was the first time that everyone got together, got to see everyone’s family, and just really seeing who you got to work with. I think Bethany’s mom and dad cooked for us. Everyone just sat in the parking lot and just visited, kids ran around, it was a good time.
