Photo Karen Graham.
Nurse Practitioner Kathryn Roka is happy to be practicing in her home community.
Last month, Millbrook Medical Centre welcomed Nurse Practitioner Kathryn Roka to their team, filling a void created with the departure three years ago of the previous Nurse Practitioner.
This is Kathryn’s second professional career. Until her mid-30’s, she was a law clerk in a Toronto firm on Bay Street, then she contracted Mononucleosis. This viral infection usually strikes teenagers who after a month or two of fatigue, sore throats and body aches, the illness usually resolve without treatment. Not so for Kathryn, who spent months seeking medical treatment and was unable to work for an entire year. Attending medical appointments led her to re-think her career. Perhaps spending her time helping people feel better was preferable to a career spent documenting law suits.
As the title suggests, training to become a Nurse Practitioner begins with becoming a registered nurse, and is followed by advanced university education, mandatory work experience and exams. Nurse Practitioners are licensed to provide a full range of health care services in a variety of settings including hospitals, long term care homes and community-based clinics like the one in Millbrook. These professionals work independently but are most often found working as key members of an integrated health care team. Nurse Practitioners can provide comprehensive health assessment, to diagnose health conditions and to treat and manage acute and chronic illness. They can order and interpret diagnostic and lab tests and can prescribe all medications, including controlled substances.
In addition to collaborating with Doctors VanLoon and Robinson, Kathryn refers patients to other professionals associated with the Family Health Team, including social workers, dieticians, mental health professionals and pharmacists. A quick email to a pool of specialists can provide insight into questions about complex issues she encounters in patients and feedback is usually delivered within 24 hours.
Kathryn arrives in Millbrook with 17 years of Nurse Practitioners’ experience under her belt. For the past 10 years she has been working in a Community Health Centre in Beaverton. In this setting, she had 800 registered patients for whom she was the primary point of care. In the Millbrook Medical centre her job is to support VanLoon and Robinson in serving their rostered patients. She describes position as a cog in the wheel of professional help, where the patient is at the centre.
The most common complaint she hears these days are rooted in depression and anxiety. Patients usually begin their appointments describing their physical ailments, but often these are the symptoms and not the cause of their discomfort. Kathryn believes that her most important diagnostic tool is listening. Sometimes it takes a while to connect the complaint to the underlying cause, in which case she offers a follow-up appointment to continue the conversation in order to address the real issue.
Her style is direct and relaxed, and she often inserts humour into her conversations. Perhaps she is relaxed because for Kathryn, coming to Millbrook feels like coming home. Her family has roots in the community and she is happy to be back. Despite having only three weeks in at the Millbrook clinic, she is already looking ahead to a long career here. KG