Profiles in Telehealth: A Family Nurse Practitioner Reinvents Her Practice
We sat down with Nurse Practitioner Barbara C. to hear how telemedicine gave her newfound time for grandchildren plus the ability to build her own clinical practice.
What’s your background? What did you do before practicing telemedicine?
My area of specialty is family medicine and I have been practicing since graduating in 2010. I also have a subspecialty in women’s health and have owned my own practice since 2012. Now, I am in the process of reinventing my practice by adding aesthetics and weight loss after taking a year and a half off.
What’s your life like outside of work?
I reside outside of Atlanta's south side. My hobbies include candle and soap making along with creating clean, organic body products like scrubs and enzyme peels. I have two children and five grandchildren between 9 and 21 years old. Outside of work I love to travel and watch old classic movies.
What brought you to telemedicine?
For me, virtual medicine came about as a way to provide care for patients that could not always come into the office and as a means of providing income while I rebuilt my practice. I started by adding a telemedicine platform for my patients to use for non-complex visits.
What’s your recent Wheel Moment of Freedom?
The moment I realized Wheel was an absolutely perfect fit was the first month I was able to cover all of my household expenses just from the telemedicine work I was doing with Wheel! I was able to work within my practice while still taking consults, giving me more freedom for things like my grandson's baseball and basketball games and my granddaughter’s extracurricular activities.
What do you think the future of healthcare holds?
What excites me about the future of healthcare in the U.S. is that we are finally having the telehealth conversation—so healthcare delivery and accessibility can be improved for all Americans.
Telemedicine and teleconsulting have applications across the care continuum, from the ER to the operating room. For example, I have participated in surgeries as a first assistant where a telemedicine consult was performed live during the procedure. These collaborative efforts leveraging telemedicine are a game-changer for improving healthcare delivery and accessibility on all levels.
Thanks, Barbara, for being an essential member of the #WheelCareTeam!
Interested in joining us? Sign up to learn more about working in telehealth with Wheel.
Learn more about provider experiences in our previous spotlight interviews with an emergency medicine turned telemedicine MD, an urgent care telemedicine nurse practitioner balancing career and family, and a seasoned physician transitioning to telemedicine.
