YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Health care is conducted in a wide variety of settings. And Kim McGinn-Perryman’s career shows it.
“I have worked in health care for nearly 30 years in multiple positions from psychiatric technician to registered nurse and now family nurse practitioner,” she says. “From my work at the bedside to my current clinician role, I have been involved in the care of hundreds of patients in a multitude of settings.”
McGinn-Perryman’s body of work spans care for newborns to 90 year olds. That could be treating a patient addicted to narcotics at birth or exposed to sexually transmitted infections in-utero and identifying progressing dementia or developing a weight-loss program to improve diabetes, mental health and chronic pain.
“I care for and help individual patients manage depression, anxiety, hypertension, thyroid disease, diabetes and much more,” McGinn-Perryman says.
She’s even taken her health care expertise into the classroom, serving stints as an assistant professor in graduate nursing courses at Missouri State University and as a clinical instructor in the Nursing Department at Cox College.
Her variety of experiences is also reflected in both urban and rural settings.
She worked 13 years as a family nurse practitioner for Seymour Family Rural Health and says the time opened her eyes to the needs of affordable care and health literacy.
Another 10-year stint was spent directing CoxHealth’s retail clinics in Springfield and the surrounding area through 2019. She says the clinics were intended to build a bridge for access to affordable care.
“They were staffed by family nurse practitioners, open seven days a week with extended hours. These clinics cared for thousands of patients and provided a gateway to primary care for many,” she says.
Understanding how food options and choices impact healthy outcomes, McGinn-Perryman also has gotten involved in food insecurity work. She’s on the team for a U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Security Program in collaboration with Springfield Community Gardens and others. The grant-funded, multitiered pilot program is intended to address the lack of regular access to safe and nutritious food for every family to have healthy and active lifestyles.
“My role centers on creating the patient education curriculum and the development of shared medical visits,” she says, noting the 55 families participating receive locally grown produce, as well as education regarding nutrition and diseases. “I am fortunate to help create a program which brings together so many aspects of health care I hold dear: patient-centered care, education and nutrition, while also reducing disparities and building new foundations for relationships.”
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