Kim Baird, RN, MSN, FNP Director and FNP Care Provider Woodbine Family Care Center, Woodbine, GA

Hello, I'm Kim Baird, a Nurse Practitioner in Rural Georgia. I am Director of the Woodbine Family Care Center located in a very rural community in South East Georgia. My clinic shares space with my husband's dental practice and provides family health services to about 1,200 people. In addition to the Family Care Center, I also have a separate contract with the county to visit the local detention center twice a week. Finally, I also visit patients in the hospital located 30 miles away. I charge the insurance companies separately for these visits.

I grew up in Southwest Georgia and went to an RN diploma program at Georgia Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta, Georgia. My husband went to dental school on a National Health Service Corp (NHSC) scholarship. We both wanted to stay in Georgia. The conditions of my husband's NHSC scholarship required us to reside in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designated area.

Before I became an NP, I found that as the only RN in a rural community, I received many health care related questions because I was the only health worker there. So I decided to go back to school to get a BS, with the specific goal in mind of continuing on to Nurse Practitioner school and ultimately setting up my own practice.

I went to Georgia Southern's rural nurse practitioner program - a rural-specific program set up by Dr. Charlene (Chuckie) Hanson - and became a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). I received a Federal Nurse Training scholarship to assist me through my nurse practitioner training.