Posted: September 9, 2023
It was 1999 when Davette Frey and her younger sister decided they wanted to live in Wyoming, a place they’d visited on vacation but was a long way from their home in northern Indiana. The two young women were looking for something different and Cody, Wyoming was certainly that. So, they packed up and headed west, and though her sister would later return to Indiana, Davette stayed, building a life as a member of the community and the Northwest College nursing program.
With two nurses on the maternal side of her family, and the influence they had on her early life, it’s no surprise Davette would be drawn to the nursing profession. She got an early start too. By the time she was 18, Davette already had her ADN, which created some interesting situations at that point in her career.
“I tell people the funny thing about when I started is that I could give narcotics to the residents of the long-term care facility where I worked, but the alcohol in the med room I couldn’t give because I wasn’t 21.”
After moving to Wyoming a couple of years later, Davette began working at Cody Regional Health and had been there more than 10 years when she met a member of the Northwest College nursing faculty who asked if she had any interest in teaching. By that point, Davette had already earned her BSN and was working on her MSN with a focus on nursing education. She wasn’t actively looking for another job, but one fell into her lap anyway, and she joined the NWC faculty as an adjunct in the fall of 2012 and fulltime the following semester.
Davette began her time at the college working strictly with LPN students when it still existed as a stand-alone program. Now, her role is much broader, encompassing classroom instruction, clinicals, and additional duties as program coordinator where she addresses the day-to-day needs of all the nursing faculty and students. Many of those students are pursuing their degrees while managing children and families of their own, a challenge not lost on Davette as she helps them meet the demands of their education.
“The most rewarding part of this is when I go to clinicals and I see our graduates, now nurses, working and thriving, giving high quality care.”