Each week in March, we’ll be recognizing local women who have made remarkable contributions to their communities. Tonight, our story is about Dani Wurtzel, a Director of Nursing who led her team through the challenges of the COVID pandemic.
“I’m Dani Wurtzel and I’m the Director of Nursing at Benedictine Living Community of La Crosse. As the Director of Nursing, I oversee the clinical services and the nursing department.”
“My name’s Brady. I work at Fox 2548. I used to work at Benedictine with Dani.”
“I met Brady when he was working at Benedictine as the Admissions & Marketing Coordinator. I found out I was nominated when I received an email. First of all, I didn’t believe it. I wondered what it was, and then once I got some more information, I was just shocked and humbled.”
“First impression of Dani is, she’s a little intimidating when you first get to meet her in a professional setting because she’s very knowledgeable at what she does and she knows what she needs to do, knows what she wants, type of thing. But once you get to know her, she’s very easygoing.
One of the first three or four months, when I got here, is when COVID started. There were about three people left in the administration office: there was Dani, me, and another nurse, basically. So, for a good part of three or four days, it was just us running the ship, so to speak.
It was a very uncertain time, obviously, and seeing her do what she did in the situation, just handling the situation she did, was very commendable. Obviously, she had a lot of weight on her shoulders. She’s the talking head for the entire facility when it comes to medical stuff.
She was learning and working on the fly, doing her best that she could, and directing everybody else, and that kind of stuck ever since I worked with her. So it’s something that made me think, Oh, well, “Remarkable Women,” she kind of embodied that.”
“I felt very humbled, I guess, to be nominated. It was a surprise. I come in and I do my job every day and I felt very appreciated when I found out I was nominated. As I said, very humbled and very surprised, but it was a good feeling. I love working with the residents and their families. They’ve just kind of become a family to me. The employees that we have, I love seeing their faces as they learn and grow. I love seeing that they feel good about themselves at the end of the day, so I continue to come to work because I love the people that I work with and the people that we take care of.”
She puts their health and well-being at the forefront when it comes to anything and everything with the job, so for her, I think that’s kind of what keeps her going is that she, again, just really loves helping people. Dani is truly a Remarkable Woman.
FOX2548 & WIProud wants to recognize the great contributions women have made to our nation and local communities. Remarkable Women is part of a nationwide Nexstar Media initiative to honor the influence that women have had on public policy, social progress and the quality of life.
