After three decades of nursing, the sentiment that inspired Ladawna Walker to get into the profession still rings true: everybody has a story, and everybody deserves care.

Voted best nurse this year in the Best of Flathead competition, the 64-year-old Walker, whose career has focused on labor and delivery work, described the achievement as an “exclamation mark” on her life's work as she heads into semi-retirement. 

Originally from Colorado, Walker moved to Montana around the time she began pursuing nursing 30 years ago. Living in Great Falls, running a day care and pregnant with her fourth child, Walker decided to go to school. 

With each class and certification, Walker wanted more. She started off as a medical assistant until she got her licensed practical nurse certification. Then she worked as a scrub nurse in the operating room while pursuing her registered nurse certification.  

“Once I became a medical assistant, I know I had to keep going,” Walker said. “... And as I was in school, I think it was obvious that I wanted to go into labor and delivery. I always felt like I always knew I was passionate about women’s health care.” 

After roughly five years in Great Falls, Walker, her husband Shane and her four children moved to the Flathead Valley, a place that the family had previously visited and grown to love. That started her 16-year stint at what was then Kalispell Regional Medical Center as a bedside labor and delivery nurse.  

It’s an incredibly rewarding job when you can advocate for a woman to give her the birth she wants, Walker said.   

“When you experience what you perceive as a traumatic birth experience, it can impact all areas of your life ... the nurse's role is to be the advocate and the protector,” she said, referencing her own birth experiences.  

The richest and most rewarding moments in her career were spent doing exactly that: holding a crying mother on the bathroom floor after losing her baby, walking women through grief, educating new mothers, being invited in for a beautiful moment.  

As Kalispell Regional Medical Center grew and transitioned to Logan Health, Walker said she felt like nurses lost their voices, the most important aspect of giving care, she said. She always loved working with midwives in the labor and delivery setting. Being able to collaborate with a team to give a woman the birth she wants is an incredible experience, she said.  

“I felt disoriented. I loved the patient care, but I didn’t love the place where I worked,” she said.  

Walker transitioned and became the office nurse at the hospital’s midwife office before finally stepping away from the hospital system in 2021 and joining certified midwife nurse Jana Sund’s practice, Kalispell Midwives and Women’s Health.  

“We’re a family,” she said of the clinic. “We have that voice.” 

Jena Diamond, the office manager at Kalispell Midwives and Women’s Health, described Walker as “just amazing.” 

“Her years of knowledge, you can’t compare to that,” Diamond said. “She makes each patient feel so comfortable, a lot of it comes from her experience.” 

Education has been essential in Walker’s career. At the hospital, she led classes for other nurses in fetal monitoring and labor. Education is key in taking care of patients, she says. 

Walker has been nominated for best nurse in the past, she said, so she didn’t think much of it this year when she saw she was nominated again. She didn’t expect to win.  

“It's cool, just the fact that I’ve semi-retired and this is the last time I’ll be out there to put the last ending mark on my career,” she said.  

Walker has a few big trips coming up, including one to Africa, and she and her husband just bought Home Consign and Design in Whitefish. While she looks forward to retirement, she also looks forward to being “as busy as [she] wants to be.” 

As she nears the end of this chapter in life, Walker will take with her the lessons she learned over the past three decades. Everybody has a story, she said, and focusing on the big picture rather than a single circumstance can make an impact.  

“We get to experience this sacred moment,” Walker said of her 30 years of labor and delivery. “You’re invited in. It’s beautiful.” 

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].