Typer retires from 40-year career as nurse practitioner

After working as a nurse practitioner for about 40 years – 27 of those in Buena Vista – Linda Typer will be retiring from the HRRMC Buena Vista Health Center March 17.

“It’s going to tear up my heart a little bit to retire because of knowing the community here for about 27 years,” she says.

“I’ve gone through lots of changes with the community. I still have patients that started with me 25-plus years ago,” Typer says. “That’s the hardest part about retiring – leaving your patients that have become your friends and taking care of them and helping them.”

For Typer, the positive part of working as a nurse practitioner is how it can go in multiple directions to help an individual find his or her niche.

Her niche was women’s health which was the program she started with before going into a family nurse practitioner program that allowed her to work in a more rural setting.

“There weren’t many nurse practitioners when I moved here in ’96,” she says. “That sort of was nice to open that door, and the flexibility of that career was nice, it was helpful. I enjoyed women’s health the most, and I incorporated that throughout all my years.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was an especially tempting time to retire, but Typer was determined not to quit that early.

Typer plans to continue living in Buena Vista and stay involved with the community, perhaps more so than before.

While she anticipates some challenge transitioning into retirement, she also sees it as “a positive crossroads” for other issues she needs to focus on, particularly working on a future for her autistic son, Justin, as well as taking care of her own health.

She also sees herself doing some gardening, bicycling, traveling and seeing more of her family in Minnesota.

“It has been my pleasure to care for a small community like Buena Vista,” she says.