From Housekeeper to Emergency Room Nurse, Casper Native Joins Banner Health Team

Seven years ago, Casper-native Joe Zeitner was looking for a job with good health insurance. He hadn’t quite decided what he wanted to do with his life, and despite having two parents in health care – his dad is a retired optometrist and his mom is a nurse – he had no interest in pursuing health care as a career. This per a press release from Banner Health Wyoming Medical Center.

Zeitner started as a housekeeper at the hospital in 2017, primarily in the Emergency Room.

While he was there, he got to know the doctors and nurses in the department and was encouraged by coworkers to pursue a CNA license and begin training as an emergency room technician.

Joe spent another three years as a tech. Meanwhile, his family was growing and he and his wife welcomed their second daughter.
"I just felt like I wanted to push further,” he said. “And the leadership here was so supportive.”

He began nursing school at Casper College in 2021. A few months ago, he started as a new grad nurse in Banner Wyoming Medical Center’s Emergency Department. He’s been working under a preceptor nurse, an experienced nurse he shadows during an orientation period, and will soon be on his own.

Joe says that his seven-year journey to becoming a nurse in the department he started out cleaning has given him valuable perspective. “I know what it takes to be on the support staff side,” he said. “I’m just so grateful for the team at all levels.”

During nursing school, Joe had the opportunity to work in many departments in the hospital, but the Emergency Department has always been what he enjoyed most, although he admits that it could at least partially be because of the relationships he’s built over time.

“This department is home,” he said.

With each job shift, Joe’s family grew. Joe and his wife are now parents to three daughters, ages 6, 4 and 2, and are expecting their fourth child later this year.