Heidi Nielsen

Which might just be a profound understatement. Nielsen, the registered nurse for Anaconda Public Schools, labored many extra hours in the past year because of COVID-19. She worked seven-day weeks and 12-hour days. She did her best to keep tabs on about 1,100 students as well as school district staff and to collaborate with other healthcare professionals to coordinate the district’s COVID-19 response.

“She is one of the most honest, humble, kind and hard-working individuals in our school district,” her nominator observed.

Nielsen’s penchant for perpetual activity started early. She grew up on a “hobby ranch” in Oregon where her father, P.D. Ristau, trained Appaloosa horses.

“I worked mucking stalls, bucking hay and hauling wood,” Nielsen said. “It was a very active childhood.”

Her first paying job was as a sales associate at the Kmart in Grants Pass, Oregon. Nielsen owned her first business at 19. She rented space with a chiropractor and worked as a certified and licensed massage therapist for injury rehab.

Nielsen wasn’t necessarily destined to choose nursing as a career path. But there clearly was a familial inclination in that direction. Her maternal grandmother was a nurse. Her mother, Susan Ristau, was a nurse for 45 years, with 42 years spent in an emergency room. One sister-in-law worked as an obstetrics and pediatrics nurse. Another works as a medical-surgical nurse at St. James Healthcare in Butte.

“So, it’s kind of in the blood,” Nielsen said.

Another understatement.

P.D. Ristau had dreams of becoming a veterinarian. He was studying toward that goal. But he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam, an experience he doesn’t talk about, Nielsen said.

He stays busy with a host of interests and vocations, serving as an insurance agent, working as a builder/contractor, carving wood and painting murals.

“He’s building his retirement home right now. He loves it so much. He’ll just work forever.”

Nielsen’s life bustles a bit too. She is trained in legal nurse consulting and is certified in nutrition. She teaches CPR and first aid as an instructor for the American Heart Association.

Nielsen is currently engaged in continuing education in forensic nursing and is preparing to take an exam to become a Nationally Certified School Nurse.

“And I am toying with the idea of pursuing a pediatric nurse practitioner degree,” she said. “I’m always looking for the next new thing to do.”

Not to mention that Nielsen and her husband, Thomas, a power line foreman for NorthWestern Energy, have two teen-aged daughters in school in Anaconda.

When the couple first moved to Anaconda in 1999, Nielsen wasn’t sure she’d want to stay.

“I teared up when I saw that big black hill coming into Anaconda,” she said, referencing the slag pile near the former copper smelter.

But Thomas, whom Nielsen described as an avid bowhunter, ice fisherman and fly fisherman, loves the area, she said.

Nielsen studied nursing at Oregon Health Sciences University, completing a bachelor’s of science degree in 1999.

Her first nursing job was at the Community Hospital of Anaconda, working as a floor nurse and in the ICU. She then spent 10 years at St. James Healthcare in a diverse array of roles. Later, she worked as a public health nurse in Anaconda and as a substance abuse prevention nurse.

“I have a very well-rounded repertoire of skills to draw from, which I think is perfect for a school nurse,” Nielsen said.

Her public health experience was helpful when COVID-19 required an unprecedented collaboration between the schools and the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Public Health Department.

Nielsen said the pandemic’s effects on students, including restrictions on developmentally important activities with peers, have taken a toll.

“We’ve seen a rise in depression and anxiety,” she said.

Nielsen said she feels frustrated on occasion because her time is stretched so thin. But the work still feeds her heart, she said.

“I just love kids.”