Profiles in Telehealth: An Adventure-Seeking NP Finds More Time for Fun and Family With a Career in Virtual Care
From treating long-term care patients as a CNA to traveling along the west coast in her RV working as a travel nurse, Christina C. has spent the last 20 years building her medical career. Today, she practices virtual care as an NP which affords her a flexible schedule and more time to go on adventures with her husband and two children.
What’s your background and what brought you to virtual care?
My almost 20 year journey in the medical field started in high school. I had always known I wanted to practice medicine in some way. Half of my day was an elective course working towards a nurse assistant certificate and hands-on experience in different medical settings. I also self-enrolled in an after school phlebotomy course. While completing high school, I also worked at a long-term care facility in the kitchen. Once I graduated with my CNA, I left the kitchen and began taking care of the residents.
Eventually I started working in a local emergency room (ER) as a patient care and monitor technician where I continued through college and stayed working once I received my RN and BSN.
My ER experience gave me the opportunity to work as a traveling nurse. I worked in various states across the west coast while traveling in my RV and seeing some amazing parts of the country. While traveling, I started my graduate program to further my education and feed my desire to help people.
Once I graduated with my Masters Degree/ NP, I started working in family practice where I created a great foundation for my overall practice. From there, I transitioned into urgent care and occupational medicine. I also started in aesthetic and weight loss medicine part time. After working in these fields for sometime, I decided I wanted more flexibility in my schedule and started providing care via telemedicine.
What’s your life like outside of work?
I grew up in sunny Florida and have a passion for the outdoors. I love white sandy beaches, sunshine, and ocean waves but I also love mountains, hiking, and camping! Now living in the Pacific Northwest, we are close to so many incredible outdoor adventures! Working as a travel nurse ignited my passion for travel and I try to do so as much as possible with my husband of 12 years and two kids. We started dragging our kids along on our adventures as newborns and now there is no place our 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter would rather be than outside camping, fishing, roasting marshmallows and climbing trees.
My second love is running. You can usually find me running and enjoying the scenery on all of our adventures as well as local trails. I have been a hobby runner since high school. I enjoy participating in local charity runs to help raise money for local causes as well as fun runs. I have participated in multiple 5 and 10Ks and completed two half marathons and one full marathon.
What brought you to telemedicine?
I've been working in telemedicine for 3 years now. I started shortly after my daughter was born. I was looking for more schedule flexibility and to spend less time commuting to an office and more time with my family.
When I first started in telemedicine, I was providing a chat (text and photo messaging only) service to patients and then transitioned into phone and video visits. Now with Wheel, I have the ability to combine all aspects of telemedicine to provide a variety of services.
What’s your Wheel Moment of Freedom?
Working with Wheel has given me the freedom to be in charge of my own schedule. I no longer feel I am tied down to the daily routine. I have the flexibility to travel more and be more present with my family.
Since working with Wheel, we have been able to adventure more together and I have been able to homeschool my son, which I would have never been able to do in a traditional office setting with a demanding work schedule.
What do you think the future of healthcare holds?
I am most excited about the future of telemedicine and the accessibility of healthcare it provides. Not only for general healthcare needs but more specifically for specialties like women’s health. I feel the increased accessibility will empower women to take control of their own health.
Thanks, Christina, for being an essential member of the #WheelCareTeam!
Interested in joining our team of virtual care clinicians? Learn more about working in telehealth with Wheel.
Discover more clinician experiences in our previous Care Team spotlight interviews with a physician on the future of telemedicine, an NP on fulfilling her dream of working completely remote, and an NP on finding balance in her busy life with virtual care.
