“When you’re in need, I want you to know I’ve got you. We will get through it.” That is what Medical Lake’s Crystal Carter said when asked why she does what she does.
Carter is a nurse and mother, and it becomes clear when talking to her that she lives to help people.
She says she has always known that she wanted to take care of living beings. In high school, however, she saw herself taking care of animals.
“I was wanting to go to college to be a veterinarian,” Carter said. “I was a competitive barrel racer growing up. I was involved in 4-H and all of that. So, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian.”
A career day with her aunt started to change her mind.
“I had an aunt who was a nurse,” Carter said. “I got do a career day with her through school. When I went, I got to go with her for a day and follow her around. I just thought it was so fun.”
At the time, Carter was working in a veterinarian’s office. She still planned on helping animals as a career.
Soon though, Carter reconsidered.
“Animals can’t tell us what’s wrong,” Carter said.
Her belief that humans could do this encouraged her to change her focus.
“Of course, later I came to find out that often people can’t tell us what’s wrong either,” Carter said.
Still, she left East Central University in Oklahoma to study nursing at Rose State College, also in her home state of Oklahoma.
After getting her associate degree in nursing at Rose State, she transferred to Southwestern Oklahoma State University to earn her bachelor’s in nursing degree.
Carter then started her career working in large hospitals in Oklahoma. Most of her experience was in the emergency room or the intensive care unit.
This made her next move a bit of a culture shock.
Carter met Branden — the man who would become her husband — while he was down south.
“He was from up here,” Carter said. After high school, he went down south to work in the oil field.”
The two moved to Medical Lake and got married. Carter searched for nursing jobs and found one in Davenport. It was 2010. Her son, Cole, had been born earlier that year.
Working in a rural hospital was a huge change for her.
“It was a very different,” she said. “I never worked in such a small place.”
Carter didn’t stay here long. Working the night shift was tough with a newborn.
When a job came up elsewhere working earlier in the day, she took it. Shortly after, she found a job working in the ICU at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane. Again, she was working in very busy department of a very busy hospital.
She stayed there until 2019, when she decided she was ready for a change. Her son was almost 10 years old.
“Now that he’s older, working nights is a great thing,” Carter said. “I work opposite of my husband and daycare is not an issue.”
So, Carter returned to Davenport to work the night shift. She said she was excited to return to the area.
“Davenport is a great community,” Carter said. “It’s very wholesome. It’s untouched from the day-in day-out things that happen at the big facilities. Davenport is unlike any community I have been to in my career. And I’m hoping this will be the end. I’m hoping this is where I end my career.”
Still, Carter admits working in Davenport has been a big adjustment.
“I do whatever they need me to do here,” Carter said. “At a rural hospital, you need to be able to go and do whatever is needed that particular day. It’s not like bigger hospitals where you can be specialized in the emergency room, or you can be specialized in the ICU. Here, you must be well-rounded. You never know what’s going to come in that door … You have to be prepared to handle whatever shows up.”
After 25 years in nursing, Carter feels she made the right career choice.
“I believe in Jesus Christ and have a strong Christian background,” Carter said. “I believe in my heart of hearts that I was called into nursing. I was called to do what I do. That’s my purpose in life, to help and comfort.”
Jeremy Burnham can be reached at jeremy@cheneyfreepress.com.
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