Providing Healthcare Close to Home

Can you tell us about the work that you do in your community?

I am a family nurse practitioner in southern West Virginia at Coalfield Health Center. I work two days a week in clinic, and one day a week I go and do community education. And then also one day a week I do a home health program.

Can you share some of the rewards of working in a rural community?

Yes, I am definitely rewarded by my work every day because I get to take care of people in my community and to help make my community healthy. I get to work with kids, educate them not only in health issues, but also what it's like to be a nurse practitioner.

How did your degrees from WVU help you in your career?

My degrees from WVU definitely helped me to advance my career, especially what I do now with the Community Health Nursing. That's pretty much all the education I got in Community Health Nursing was from WVU, so far as assessing the needs of my community and being able to find plans that can help me to meet the needs of my community.

What does it mean for you to be able to give back to the community that you grew up in?

It means everything to me to be able to give back to the community I grew up in.

I have three children that I want them to be able to, if they want to stay there, to feel like they can stay there and be successful. And a big part of that was the degrees that I ended up getting online through West Virginia University. 

For someone who may be interested in becoming a family nurse practitioner, what would you say to them?

I would say definitely if you feel like that's something that you're interested in, find a mentor, do some job shadowing and see if it's something that you feel like you wanted to do still. Do what you can as far as your basics and apply to nursing school and then further your education.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Go Mountaineers!