Carla Collins NP has been working with OHC since 2017. During this time she had an adorable baby boy. It has been fun working with Carla and watching Theo grow up.
Here is Carla’s story:
I spent the year of 2007 travelling abroad, teaching English, and considering what to do with my life. As the daughter of a rural pediatrician I have always held a strong interest in working in healthcare. While I was travelling is when I really started to think seriously about nursing. I realized I wanted a career that would have both intellectual fulfilment and practical skills and applications. An editorial that came out a few years later in the New York Times put it well: “if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book… I’m not sure it’s necessary”. I wanted my work to have a fairly obvious value add in the world.
I started working as a medical assistant when I returned from traveling then went to an accelerated Masters of Nursing program at Boston College, having completed a previous Bachelors degree in Psychology. I finished school and worked for 5 years as a PCP at an urban practice in Somerville seeing people from all ages and walks of life. The same practice Great hired me as a medical assistant years earlier.
I later took an opportunity to join a multidisciplinary team working on hospital readmission reduction for high risk patients. These two jobs were at opposite ends of the healthcare spectrum: one a small ambulatory private practice, the other under a large hospital umbrella with visits to patients homes, SNFs, and the ER as a regular part of the job.
I found I enjoy many different aspects of healthcare and both positions reaffirmed my choices. The large project was state funded and ultimately it was decided that the nursing perspective would be at the RN level rather than NP and I found myself unemployed over the holidays in 2016.
I started working in per diem corporate care and met another nurse who referred me to Nancy Clover and Occupational Health Connections as a way to maintain the flexibility of per diem but also have a “regular job”- W2, PTO, networking opportunities etc.
I started in early 2017 and have enjoyed different roles working with the company, but am primarily onsite occupational health at a large multinational pharmaceutical company. I love the flexibility of working for OHC- though for the most part I maintain a regular schedule of 4 days a week. I have learned about occupational health aspects of manufacturing, research and development, corporate wellness, mental health, and workers compensation case management. Pre pandemic I did quite a bit of travel medicine.
I am grateful to have a job and a career that fits with the rest of my life and you never know where life will take you so I am a big fan of overarching flexibility with a certain degree of stability😊 An endorsement that speaks for itself: I took a 5 month maternity leave to have my son at the end of 2018 and brought on a friend and NP classmate to cover my position who still works directly with me at OHC to this day.