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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.
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