Jolene Cawlfield

JOHN DAY – Grant County Health Department now has two family nurse practitioners serving the health needs of county residents.

The newest member of the team, Tim Neilson, came on board just last week. He will be in the county one week each month, while continuing to work at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Wash., the remaining three weeks.

He said that the John Day setting is “like home for me.”

Raised in Madras, Neilson has long-standing ties to Eastern Oregon. His grandparents, Robert and Lois Neilson, owned John Day’s Dreamers Lodge about 35 years ago.

Neilson spent five years working in clinics in Union and Elgin, through Oregon Health and Science University’s La Grande campus. He said that those communities were similar in many ways to John Day.

He added that he enjoys being able to work in places that have a shortage of and need for medical personnel.

And on a side note, Neilson attended OHSU with another family nurse practitioner in the local area, Lindsay Madden.

At the Health Department, Neilson joins family nurse practitioner Jolene Cawlfield, who has been working at the department since February.

Cawlfield sees patients there two days each month.

The Burns native runs a full-time practice there and works at the Oregon Youth Authority in Burns, too.

A registered nurse for 28 years and a family nurse practitioner for 11, Cawlfield received her nurse practitioner degree from OHSU and graduated from an outreach program in Bend in 1997.

She said she had a “strong passion for public health.” When retirement comes calling, Cawlfield hopes to work as a medical missionary.

In her spare time, she enjoys quilting, reading, scrapbooking and photography. She has also gone on mission trips to Italy.

Cawlfield and her husband have two grown children, and have raised horses and cattle.

With their combined talents and experiences, the FNP pair are ready for patients … ready to help out, as Neilson put it, “anyone who walks through the door.”