Taking care of students from Gibraltar to Southern Door is all in a day’s work for Kelsie Ladick, LPN. Kelsie serves children through Door County Medical Center’s (DCMC) school nursing program. “Our mission is to keep local students healthy so they can learn and grow,” she says. A typical day for Kelsie includes illness and injury assessment, medication administration and educating staff on students’ medical needs and conditions.

Kelsie has been with DCMC since 2010, and has worked as a school nurse since 2014. Her first few years at the hospital, she worked in the Skilled Nursing Facility and the DCMC Clinic. “I’ve spent much of my career working with seniors, and now I am enjoying caring for children and seeing that end of the spectrum,” she says.

She says she and other school nursing staff are a resource for community members. “When DCMC made the transition to partnering with HSHS, we had a lot of school staff and parents asking us about that. We were able to tell them that the quality of care wouldn’t change, and they’d have access to more specialists.”

In the community at large, Kelsie is also a go-to person for other parents and kids. “I have two boys, so I spend a lot of time at sporting events, often in my scrubs,” she says. She often fields medical questions, and helps with injuries and assessments on the field and on the court.

DCMC’s school nursing program serves the Gibraltar, Southern Door and Sturgeon Bay districts.