About Town: Evergreen ER Nurse Going Strong After 30 Years of Helping Others

If you visit the ER or urgent care department at Redmond's , you might well run into Kim Striber, one of the new team members at Evergreen’s recently opened facility at Bella Bottega.

Striber is no newcomer to nursing, however, and just marked her 30th anniversary with Evergreen. She said she loves helping people and can't think of a career better spent than hers.

The Kirkland resident and native of Medina (back when it was open space and farmland, she adds) spent the first half of her nursing career with Evergreen in oncology care, and has spent the second half in critical care and emergency services. Striber went to work for Evergreen after getting her nursing degree from Shoreline Community College and has worked her entire career with the same medical group.

“I’m very compassionate and very much a caretaker in all areas of my life,” Striber said, explaining that she’s drawn to what others might consider high-stress areas of medical care. “I really enjoy being an advocate for patients.”

Along the way, she also became a “nurse navigator,” helping women find their way through care at the breast health center, and is also a “SANE” nurse at Evergreen—a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, one of a team at Evergreen that is on-call 24 hours a day.

“A lot of people aren’t aware that this is available on the Eastside,” Striber said of the 24-hour program. There are other SANE nurses on the Eastside, but Evergreen operates the only seven-day-a-week, on-call program in the area, she said.

Before the Emergency Center opened this spring, Striber spent all of her nursing career with Evergreen in Kirkland, where she lives with her husband, Larry, and where they raised their blended family of five children.

Even though Striber says she and her husband have begun to throw around that “retirement” word, she plans to continue working at Evergreen in Redmond—which for her includes two 12-hour shifts each week, plus on-call time for the SANE program—for some time to come.

“I have the perfect job scenario for retirement. This job was great for being a mom. It’s great for life,” she said.

When she’s not advocating for patients, Striber plays with her husband in a blues band at weddings, funerals, and occasionally at venues such as Big Daddy’s. The couple also likes to take advantage of the local trail system, hike and bike, and frequent the . Striber also volunteers at the market and at community events on behalf of Evergreen.

One thing Striber said she is looking forward to now is using some of that “spare time” to brush up on her Spanish language skills and combine her love of travel with bringing her nursing skills to aid in other countries. She went on a mission trip to Nicaragua several years ago is looking forward to doing more of the same.