Being a community nurse connects Alex Wenzel, RN, to a “larger purpose”
Community health nurse Alex Wenzel, RN, has always been driven to help people. But his path to nursing was not a traditional one.
At first, Alex pursued sports management and majored in sports science in college. “But after college, I knew I wanted to do something more meaningful, helping people that really needed help,” Wenzel said.
In honor of National Nurses Week, Wenzel shared with us how his underlying passion to make a difference led him to nursing.
Wenzel joined our Community Advancement team in June 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and immediately began working with our MINI Clinic program, which provides free vaccines in trusted community spaces to reduce barriers to healthcare. During outreach events, our Community Advancement team also provides important primary care services like free dental fluoride varnish applications, COVID-19 testing, and blood pressure screenings at pop-up health clinics across the state.
After college, Wenzel pivoted from pursuing sports management, wanting to find a more fulfilling role helping people. He worked for 16 years as a childcare provider in a childcare center, crisis nursery, and PrairieCare, a mental health partial hospitalization program that cares for young adults experiencing mental health difficulties.
“At the crisis nursery, we were like a daycare where we helped serve meals to kids, bathed them, and helped get them to bed, but we were helping families through difficult times in their lives,” Wenzel said. “Parents who were in between housing, families dealing with hospitalizations, or people who were struggling and just needed a break could come to us for support.”
It was while he was caring for those vulnerable in our communities that he felt driven to take on a new challenge – becoming a nurse. Now, when he’s not running one of our community vaccine clinics, he’s at the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub packing clinic supplies and preparing important resources to help educate community members on ways to improve wellness and advocate for their own health.
“It’s different in many ways, what I do now,” Wenzel said. “But I know I’m part of a larger purpose. What I do now is really helping improve people’s health and the health of the community.
By traveling directly to patients, Wenzel and the Community Advancement team are bridging the gaps seen in healthcare and most importantly – building trust among community members who may feel apprehensive about receiving care.
“The most rewarding moments for me are getting to work with a patient who has a lot of anxieties about vaccines for example,” Wenzel said. “Talking them through their fear, helping them understand how it will benefit their health, just making it a positive experience so that hopefully in the future, they will be comfortable when they need another vaccine or visit the clinic again.”
