Landing in Sioux Falls after multiple relocations, military spouse Donna Steineke thought she’d have a hard time finding work.

“When you’re in a military family and you move as often as some people do, every year and a half to two years, that’s not exactly something that looks really good on a resume,” said Steineke.

“I learned really quickly not to mention that I was a military spouse because that was kind of a deterrent more so than it was a plus.”

Fortunately, when applying at Sanford Health, being a military spouse brings benefits.

“I love interacting with the patients. I am very much a people person,” said Steineke about her new position at a Sanford ophthalmology clinic. “I am a patient access representative. Work at the front desk. I do everything.”

Steineke, whose husband Curt is retiring after 31 years in the Army, found a role at Sanford through the Military Spouse Employment Partnership portal online.

“Our job as a partner for MSEP is to not only hire military spouses and promise to do what we can to retain them but to assist them during those moves and relocations,” said Caitlin Eigenberg, a military spouse and the MSEP administrator for Sanford Health.

“It can be really difficult to find organizations who are willing to hire and retain military spouses. MSEP was created to help bridge that gap.”

‘It makes you feel special’

Steineke says the job search process through MSEP is “very easy, wasn’t difficult at all. Just needs to be more out there for people to know about it because, gosh, it’s great.”

Eigenberg adds, “Sanford Health loves employing veterans and military members but also that extends to their family members as well.”

The health system takes care of families sacrificing so much to keep our country safe.

While Steineke is enjoying her new home and career, if she moves again, Sanford features a wide footprint and remote-work opportunities.

“It’s very encouraging. It makes you feel special,” said Steineke.

Words Eigenberg likes to hear as she believes military spouses bring a unique background to Sanford Health.

“Military spouses are a very highly educated group of people but not only that, they are hard workers,” said Eigenberg. “They don’t want to be jumping jobs every two years just because their spouse is relocating. They want to find an organization that they can build a career with and see themselves at long term. Just like our military members, their loyalty is unmatched. So really they are an ideal candidate pool.”

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Posted In People & Culture, Veterans