Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Musgrave.
Hi Jordan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In 2018, I was 30 years old and living the life I had always hoped for, being a wife to my high school sweetheart and a mom to two young children, working as needed as a registered nurse in a chemo infusion clinic. On a family vacation to Disneyland, I was showering and felt a lump in my breast. I went in for a breast biopsy and was immediately diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. After further investigation with imaging and blood work, it was determined that a double mastectomy was my best option. Uneasy about it, that’s what we decided to do.
Cancer recovery brought on mental health problems I had never experienced before. I fought depression, anxiety, and self-image issues. As a mom of a young girl, I struggled. How could I teach her to be confident and feel like she was enough, when I didn’t feel that way myself?
After a year and a half, I decided I was ready to face more surgeries and moved forward with reconstruction, starting with expander placement. Expanding for reconstruction was a process. It required appointments and fills every 2 weeks over a 9-month period. It was a painful process, and I started to experience anxiety when I would go. I wished I could bypass the office and have the care I needed in my home.
During the pandemic, I had the opportunity to go with my sister on a travel nursing assignment. She was already enrolled in an NP program, and watching her gave me the motivation to continue my education as a nurse practitioner. I was able to begin NP school. It was quite the challenge, but I met some amazing nurses who helped me along the way. I’m April 2022, I graduated from the program and passed boards.
Now I have the amazing opportunity to start and in-home and telehealth family practice here in my small rural community! It’s my hope to help alleviate the anxieties for others that I felt during my treatment. I’m feeling so productive and mentally healthy as I spend my days caring for others!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest challenge of business is finding the balance between running the business I want to run, and being the mom that I want to be. For me, once I got past the mental block that I can’t do both things the way I want to, I felt like I had been set free. Now I feel like I am thriving because both my cups are overflowing! I am being fulfilled in both areas, instead of just one or the other. And this balance allows me to feel my best.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a family nurse practitioner who sees the healthcare system for what it is, and that is rough! It’s rough on the healthcare providers, and it’s rough on the patients. Having such high quantities of patients each day does not allow providers to get to know their patients the way providers once did. It leaves patients feeling like they are a number, or cattle being moved along. I see it. I’ve been the staff, and I’ve been the patient.
I live in a rural area, and I have seen a need for a more personal, slower-paced patient/provider relationship. Luckily, I have the opportunity to now provide just that to the patients who live around me. I offer longer visits, house calls, and easily accessible telehealth appointments. Because I have a slower model, I am able to get patients an appointment within the week. I know my patients and my patients know me. They have my number in their phone. They text me when they have questions and they feel confident that I care, because I do.
Some say this is a new way of care, I think it’s bringing the in-home provider back from the dead. I love it so much, and so do my patients.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
One thing I have learned from the healthcare crisis is patience. People all over have lost trust, they’ve gained new opinions, they have been wronged. But one thing I know is that even if they feel this way, healthcare providers will continue to be here for their patients. No matter how much negative shade is thrown towards healthcare, There will ALWAYS be a time when a person needs a healthcare provider. ALWAYS. And without fail, healthcare will be there 24/7. Settling into this idea allows me to let go of the defense I sometimes feel towards the negative memes shared, or coverage on the media towards healthcare. And I feel empowered knowing that people can say what they want, but at the end of the day, I will continue to be here, helping and serving the best I know how.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Valleyhealthandinfusion
Image Credits
Devry Reeder Photography for the professional headshot and family picture.
