Ashe County native Katie Miller, a certified family nurse practitioner, is now helping care for those who supported her growing up as the provider for Fleetwood Family Medicine.Katie Miller, Provider for Fleetwood Family Medicine, sitting in patient room using some medical equipment while smiling over at the camera
Ashe County native committed to being a great nurse for her community
Ashe County has always been a place to call home.
It's where Katie Miller discovered her desire to become a nurse.
It's where she met her high school sweetheart and would one day start a family of her own.
It's where she met her mentor and learned the fulfillment that comes from positive outcomes and helping others achieve success.
And it's the place where a friendly smile and a comforting hand go a long way to shaping who you become.
Now Katie is returning the favor by helping care for those who supported her in the same community she immersed herself in growing up.
We take comfort in familiarity, and for Katie that's right here in her hometown.
"I have patients who will say to me 'It's so hard to think of you as my provider,'" Katie says. "For me, it's nice to know them on that level. A lot of people might think it's a bad thing, but I think it helps patients develop that trust because I'm not an outsider. I think it's a positive."
After having spent the past three years working at Mount Jefferson Family Medicine as a certified family nurse practitioner, Katie recently transitioned over to Fleetwood Family Medicine, Ashe Memorial Hospital's new primary care clinic, which opened May 10.
It didn't take long for word to get around that Ashe Memorial Hospital would be opening a new primary care clinic in Fleetwood with Katie as its provider. With the new clinic, rural residents of surrounding communities will now have access to appropriate healthcare in a timely manner.
Conveniently located at 13300-12290 U.S. Highway 221 S in Fleetwood, Fleetwood Family Medicine offers accessible, high quality healthcare for all ages, ranging from infant care to adult family medicine. The new clinic, which has three exam rooms for patients, is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and accepts most major insurance plans.
"I had someone come up to me and tell me this is the first time they've seen a provider in 30 years and they don't even know me, so that's pretty cool," Katie says. "The level of care will remain the same, but this is a new opportunity to serve new patients. I'm looking forward to being able to provide my patients in a rural community with complete care that embodies their physical, emotional and mental health. This will be a new opportunity for them."
Growing up, Katie always wanted to be a nurse. When she was in high school, she had to deal with a lot of familial sickness and was around hospitals a lot. During those visits, Katie saw the way the doctors took care of the patients, but it was the compassion of the nurses and their passion for their jobs that stood out.
"I met some really great nurses, and I knew that I wanted to become one of those really good nurses," Katie says. "I wanted to work in a job that I could get fulfillment from every day."
Katie attended Western Carolina University where she earned her bachelor's degree in nursing in 2011, but she always knew that she would eventually return home.
"I knew that I wanted to come back here to work and serve the community that always served me growing up," Katie says. "It's been a really cool experience."
Katie worked as a RN in both the medical/surgical and obstetrics departments at Ashe Memorial Hospital before returning to East Tennessee State University to earn her master's degree in nursing.
She later joined Mountain Family Care Center in 2015 as a nurse practitioner and later transferred to Mount Jefferson Family Medicine where she provided primary care for patients of all ages until moving over to Fleetwood Family Medicine.
While Katie knew the opportunity to open a new clinic and help patients who may not have otherwise had access to healthcare was too good to pass up, it still took her a minute to fully grasp the idea of leaving Mount Jefferson Family Medicine, specifically her mentor, Dr. Melinda Wonsick, who Katie began learning from as a young nurse at Ashe Memorial Hospital.
It wasn't until her husband, Josh, who has been beside her every step of the way from high school and nursing school to marriage and motherhood, reminded her that this was an opportunity to help an underserved part of the community that may not present itself again.
"Even working as a nurse here, Dr. Wonsick was my mentor," Katie says. "She's amazing at what she does, and I've always tried to model my practice after her and the way she cares about her patients. Leaving Mount Jefferson Family Medicine was very bittersweet, but I'm not moving across the country. I just have to keep reminding myself that."
In addition to continuing to care for her current patients, Katie also is looking forward to being able develop relationships with new patients and serve a part of the community that had been pushing for a primary healthcare facility.
The new clinic offers primary care services as well as care for common and complex conditions, ranging from cold and flu, ear infections and gastrointestinal problems to falls, minor burns and lacerations. In addition to providing primary care services, Katie and her team also draw labs, perform small medical procedures and handle acute care visits.
"I enjoy the success stories and just knowing maybe that small gesture or the extra five minutes that I took and the difference that it makes," Katie says. "With medicine it's not always sunshine and roses, but it makes the successful stories that much sweeter."
When she's not busy serving the community, Katie enjoys spending time with her husband and their 5-month-old twin boys Brooks and Oliver. She also enjoys kayaking on the New River, reading and playing with her chocolate lab.
