Staff spotlight: Laura Buck, interim director of nursing

On December 6, Laura Buck joined Newton Presbyterian Manor as its interim director of nursing. During her nearly 20-year career in the health care industry, Laura has done everything from serving as the director of an in-patient hospice care facility to handling case management for an elder law firm.

Laura’s passion for nursing—and helping others—was instilled in her at an early age.

“My mom was a nurse, so I grew up watching her help people,” said Laura. “I also did some volunteer work in middle school with elders and have always been drawn to the geriatric and elderly population.”

In fact, Laura’s first day of nursing school was her 18th birthday.

As the community’s interim director of nursing, Laura gets to utilize that lifelong passion for nursing, along with her extensive professional experience, to help both residents and members of her own staff.

“I love my role because not only do I get help make positive changes for the residents in their environment, as well as their families, I get to support the nursing team. I love the teaching aspect of it and seeing potential for improvement. We have quite a few newer CNAs and it’s great just seeing the excitement when they understand something or putting the pieces together,” said Laura.

Even though Laura has only been at the community for a few months, she has already developed some strong feelings for the people she works with.

“The administrative team is awesome—Emily is the new executive director, and she is incredible, I absolutely love her,” said Laura. “We have some challenges, but the staff has huge hearts and their ability to help and contribute to being part of the solution is pretty incredible. I haven’t been many places where that is the case.”

And the feelings are mutual. Presbyterian Manor’s administration is already working hard to remove the “interim” from Laura’s title—the only barrier are some personal obligations Laura needs to take care of back home in Pratt.

“I’m hopeful everything will work out,” said Laura. “I have a home in Pratt I’m trying to sell, if it does, I hope to transition full time. If not, we’ll just see where things go.”

Away from work, Laura is a certified Scuba diver and mother of two teenagers who loves to read anything she can get her hands on.

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