Honey Meitzen is a Staff Nurse in the Memory Center (formerly known as the Alzheimer's Center) and works on the 3-11 shift. In addition to the medical care we all know that nurses provide like carrying out care plans and doctor's orders, working in the Memory Center also calls upon special skills in working with residents who at times may be restless or combative. Honey is always there to help whenever and wherever she is needed. She thinks of the residents as her friends rather than patients. She says, "Here every day is a new day - always expect the unexpected!"

One of the most important things Honey has learned in the Memory Center is the various techniques to use in communicating with someone with dementia. Wherever the resident is in his or her life is absolutely real to them. St. Simeon's recently sent a group of employees to the Alzheimer's Association Symposium on just that topic - Validation Therapy.

Honey is on the Red Safety Team. When the teams were more active she was always coming up with ideas of ways to make money or special things we could do for the residents. Honey has quite an active imagination as anyone who has ever been around her can testify. She is the reporter for the Memory Center for the employee newsletter and occasionally submits poetry or short pieces that she has written.

She grew up in Pryor, Oklahoma where her Dad worked for 35 years at the Post Office before retiring. Her Mom stayed home and took care of the children - Honey had two brothers and one sister. The first job she ever had was in the Circulation Department of the Pryor Daily Times.

Honey originally thought she wanted to be a paramedic and went to Emergency Medical Training classes. But she decided that she would rather be working on patients in a hospital setting rather than in an ambulance. Honey didn't move anywhere until she met and married her future husband - he was working as a Nurse Aide. They bought a travel trailer so they could catch up the traveling they had missed. They honeymooned in Las Vegas, Texas and have also been to Florida, Colorado, South Carolina, and all the states in between.

Before coming to St. Simeon's Honey worked as a nurse in McKinney, Texas; Mineola, Texas; and Cannon City, Colorado.

She came to work at St. Simeon's because her sister-in-law was working at Green Country and had always talked about wanting to come get a job over here. When Honey moved to Tulsa it just seemed natural that this would also be her first choice. She remembers that when she applied for the job she had her then six-month old Tina in a stroller and Joey toddling along beside her when our Director of Nursing, Carla Stokesberry, gave her the grand tour. She ended up being the one working here instead of her sister.

Honey likes everything about her job. Of course, Honey seems to like everything about life in general. Where does she get all that energy?

She and her husband, Joe, and their two wonderful children live in an upstairs apartment. Family is the most important thing in Honey's life. Both children are home schooled and doing very well. They use a Christian curriculum so, "They will have a firm foundation in the Lord." Joey is in second grade and Tina is going into first grade. They are members of the Christian Home Education Fellowship of Oklahoma.

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