More family medicine providers available

Two nurse practitioners join Family Medicine Clinic of Sweetwater Memorial

Rock Springs — As family medicine needs in Sweetwater County grow, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County is working to come up with solutions.

Family Nurse Practitioners Jocelyn Palinek and Tenny Hanson both are now seeing patients at the Family Medicine Clinic of Sweetwater Memorial at 3000 College Drive.

It has taken them both more than a decade of study to reach this point in their careers. They took their time.

Or, as Hanson puts it: “I’ve taken the long, arduous scenic route.”

Step by step, course by course they learned from a wide variety of instructors and mentors what it means to be a compassionate and highly skilled family nurse practitioner. Both will tell you they couldn’t have done it without the support, encouragement, and patience of their families.

Jocelyn Palinek

Palinek grew up in Green River and graduated from Green River High School. She and her husband had the opportunity to live abroad during her husband's service with the Air Force. When his enlistment was complete in 2009, they chose to return home to Sweetwater County with their growing family. She has lived in Rock Springs for the past five years with her husband and four children.

Pa linek earned her associate degree in nursing from Western Wyoming Community College in 2011 and began working as a registered nurse for MHSC in the same year. She initially worked as a registered nurse in a clinic setting.

Beginning in 2013, she worked in the hospital’s post-anesthesia care unit for five years. Palinek completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Wyoming, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2014. In 2016, Palinek made the decision to begin her graduate coursework in nursing with an emphasis on caring for individuals and families throughout the lifespan. She earned a master’s degree as a family nurse practitioner from Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Mich., in 2018. Palinek is nationally board certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

At the Family Medicine Clinic of Sweetwater Memorial, she will be working with internal medicine specialist Dr. Israel Stewart.

Tenny Hanson

Hanson has lived in the Sweetwater County area since 1999. After graduating high school in Randolph, Utah, she moved to Rock Springs to attend Western Wyoming Community College.

She worked as a medical massage therapist and was the owner/operator of Medical Massage of Southwest Wyoming from 2003-09.

In 2007, she received an associate degree with an emphasis on pre-radiology from WWCC. She continued her coursework at Western, completing an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing in 2010.

She began working as a nurse at Castle Rock Convalescent Center in Green River in 2009. She went on to work there as the restorative nurse manager through 2016. From 2014-16, she also worked for Sweetwater County Public Health as a Women’s and Children’s Health public health nurse.

In 2014, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from UW. Hanson completed graduate studies through Maryville University in St. Louis, Mo., earning a master’s degree as a family nurse practitioner in 2018. Hanson is nationally board certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Before joining MHSC, Hanson spent the last two years working as the nurse manager at Sweetwater County Detention Center. She has worked with the Sweetwater County Chapter of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, as well as Life R U Ready?

“The opportunity to meet with inspiring mentors drove me,” Hanson said.

“I have always been in some type of work or industry where I’m caring for people,” she said. “And, the sky is the limit in this profession.”

At the Family Medicine Clinic of Sweetwater Memorial, she will be working with family practitioner Dr. David Dansie.

Palinek and Hanson both are accepting new patients. For an appointment with Palinek, call (307) 212-7570; for Hanson, call (307) 212-7708.