Lifestyles & Community
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Sheila Virgin, nurse practitioner and director of Health, Now!, spoke earlier this year with patient JoAnn Alcorn of Richmond at the clinic.
Sheila Virgin: A nurse with a mission
Sheila Virgin had hopes of one day operating a low-income or uninsured health clinic and providing her skills as a nurse practitioner to those in need. What started out as a dream now has came to fruition.
After a group of people from two local churches got together to make Richmond “a better place” in August 2005, with Virgin as the director, the doors of Health, Now! Clinic opened.
It took four years. The clinic started with a space at Pattie A. Clay and in 2007, moved to South Collins street and moved in with Grace, Now!, an organization providing food and clothing to those in need.
Most recently, the clinic moved to the basement of City Hall.
“Health, Now! is truly a mission for me. It’s my mission field. God is in it therefore he allows it to happen,” she said.
Virgin graduated from West Virginia University in 1991 and graduated as a nurse practitioner from the University of Alabama–Birmingham in 1994.
She moved to Richmond with her family after getting a job at Eastern Kentucky University, where for 11 years, she taught graduate level nursing classes.
Someone once told her they could not wait for her to have kids so that it would take her time away from nursing.
“It was eat, drink and sleep nursing because the passion was so strong and I think you have plenty passions in life, more than one,” she said.
Virgin always wanted to be a nurse, figuring out people’s health problems.
“It’s like a puzzle and I love to do that,” she said.
Every job she has had prepared her for the next.
“God basically smoothed the path and took away the obstacles,” she said. “I think about how God put me into places in life to where I had advantages to further my career.”
On top of facilitating the clinic, Virgin works as a primary care site coordinator for Kentucky and teaches at Indiana Wesleyan University, is a full-time employee for Foothills Mobile Clinic for the Homeless in Powell County, is a mother of two: Beth Ann, 25 and Andrew,18; and is a grandmother to one: 6-year-old Bryan. She also is a full time church-goer.
Her husband Steve stays at home and takes care of the family.
“He’s my driver,” she said, laughing. “He made the comment when we first got together, ‘you can get all the degrees, just don’t make me do it, we’ll follow your career,’” she said.
People ask her all the time if she would encourage her children to follow her career choice.
“Yes, I would. Nursing has been a very good profession for me. I don’t care what you become as long as you’re a Christian and you follow what God wants you to do,” she said.
Virgin tries to protect her Saturday mornings for free time and her Sundays for church. When she does have an open schedule, she likes to play with her grandson and go to her son’s band competitions.
“I think I handle it because I have such a supportive family,” she said. “Many days, I just remind myself this too shall pass. Tomorrow’s another day, a fresh day and I can start all over again.”
Health, Now! is open every Tuesday and Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Virgin is at the clinic on Wednesday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visits to the clinic are only $15, but if a person is unable to pay, they are never turned away, Virgin said.
For more information about the clinic or to schedule an appointment, call 979-0948.
Brittany Davenport can be reached at 623-6624 or news@richmondregister.com.
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