Amy Read for Collaborating Docs - Practice Feature!

Speaker: Amy Read

Amy Read: Hey there, my name is Amy Reed. I am a nurse practitioner, um and owner of Sunshine Functional Healing. I practice mainly in holistic slash functional medicine. I really spend a lot of time with my patients trying to determine root cause and help them really understand what they can do to treat their medical concerns. I have a wide variety of areas that I practice in primarily in mental health, men's health, women's health, um which kind of sounds like everything. Generally, I do a testosterone treatments. I, I do a lot of ADHD treatment. I work a lot with women, women's health, women's hormones. And then also weight loss, all of these um seem widely different, however, they all tend to affect mental health. So whether we have obesity a lot of times that is a mental health um component to that um testosterone being low has a lot of depression anxiety type side effects. And so this is where I initially became involved in those services when patients would come to my mental health practice. But the root cause was something different. And so I do like to spend a good amount of time making sure that patients um really have good answers and as well as lifestyle changes that they can make because prescriptions help. but lifestyle changes really impact and help towards really giving the best results for patients. And I practice in four states, South Carolina and Michigan. I do stimulant therapy um in both of those states. And then I also practice in Maryland in New York in those states. I do not do any controlled substances um just due to federal regulations. And then I also do uh regular functional medicine um with health coaching um in all states. So I have that out there for everybody. Just super amazing, finally growing my team after having my practice for a couple of years and I'm just super excited to be a part of Collaborating Docs in addition um to working um with my practice. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Bye bye.

Amy Read: Hey, so the question here today is um as the journey of having your own practice, what has been the biggest struggle? And my goodness, I would have to say that the biggest struggle is just not having all the answers. It is super frustrating that um as a nurse practitioner, it is so difficult to find rules, regulations, policies, things like that and the differences in every single state and um how complex the nursing um seems to be when doing licensing and trying to open your own practice. There are so many differences between state to state. And that part is been extremely difficult trying to grow the practice and to see patients in other areas and um still be able to follow the law to the best of my ability. Because so many um areas aren't in print and aren't in black and white writing for us to find um specifically in Michigan. the Nurse Practice Act is pretty much non existent and um support for um nurse practitioners is not as robust as it is in some other states. So this I think to for me has been the most difficult part is, you know, trying to develop the practice. make sure that I'm following the guidelines, rules um for state federal um guidelines in addition to, you know, working with ancillary staff and, and hiring and, and knowing exactly what um different um levels of care can be. Um So I, I would have to say that that's probably been the biggest struggle outside of that, I think writing policy and procedures for my practice has been extremely difficult. Um When you have nobody to, to, to guide you, nobody to um help you develop those um protocols and your, your own provider practice it. There's nobody to double check you. There's nobody to say, hey Amy, you didn't do this or hey Amy, you've really got to start checking this box. And so that, that I think has been the most difficult part for, for my practice and for me.

Amy Read: I think that the best advice I can offer to new nurse practitioner, entrepreneurs who want to own our practice is to not self limit, not hold yourself back and just get out there and do it. I have found it to be so much more fulfilling and there is so much gratitude out there from the patients and, and I really truly believe that nurse practitioners um deliver an excellent level of care. Um And so I would say, do not let the limitations hold you back, use lots of resources that are out there. Um Resources such as collaborating docs have so much um information available for the new entrepreneur. I wish um I would have found about out about the collaborating positions prior to. Um when I did, I think I've only been with them for about eight or nine months. Um And um I wish I had it sooner because there is so much valuable information that they share, but also looking to other nurse practitioners who have already done it, looking for somebody um there that can help guide you. Um I have found the elite nurse practitioner um programs to be extremely helpful, beneficial. For guidance in law, building your practice and marketing your practice as well as educational um information there for doing telehealth and in person offices as well. So that is another great resource. But again, the biggest thing is, is don't self limit. You don't need to be a millionaire to get started. It is not necessarily easy. I often would see advertisements on Facebook about growing your practice and how quickly you're going to become like this a millionaire. Um Unfortunately, that did not happen for me. It has not happened for most of the nurse practitioners. I know who have their own practice. However, um it, it, it does take work, it does take time, it does take diligence. You cannot quit your full time job and expect to be making that salary next week. It has taken me about three years to really get my practice to a level where I am more satisfied and feeling financially secure. While growing the practice, I think that that's kind of average. I think that um depending on the area that you want to work in and what you want to do, there are a lot more opportunities out there. For me, I wasn't able to invest a lot in marketing and I feel that that was definitely limiting for me to not be able to have guidance in marketing when I first got started. And I think that the things that I was doing, um, weren't the correct things and initially I was really, um wanting to do fibromyalgia and really gung ho on, on narrowing into that niche. However, um, I, I found it very difficult because most of those patients did not want to make lifestyle changes that were necessary to really um help fix their problems and um, symptoms they were having. And so I spend a lot of time wasted on that and really found that that niche was not difficult. So, really double checking what you wanna do and, and the availability and what's out there and really making sure that that population of patients is going to be sustainable. But just go for it, do it because you won't look back and, and you're never gonna wanna work for somebody else again. Once you, once you get here.

Amy Read: Hey, so, so far my experience with using collaborating physicians um to secure a collaborating position has been um really good initially. Um I had some confusion with the beginning paperwork, getting things going, things like that. Um But I really think it was just a little bit of overwhelm on my part trying to quickly um secure a physician and get um my practice going in South Carolina. And so um that part has went smoothly thereafter. Um I currently meet with my physician about once a month um video or phone call. He has been excellent to work with um very um outgoing as far as reaching out to make sure there's nothing I need always um reaching out to make sure that I have nothing um outstanding that he needs to do. As far as my practice goes, He is here to listen and offer suggestions as needed. It doesn't seem to micromanage, you know, that was one of my biggest fears. selecting somebody who I wasn't already familiar with or didn't already know was how involved do they want to be? How much are they going to want to have? control over my practice and how I run it. and it's been really smooth. That was a fear of mine that they, that the doctor would want to change or, or have me do things differently. But he's been really open and um supportive of my treatment plans. my approach to practice and, and that has been really um awesome to have. So I, I think that um as far as I'm concerned, everything has went extremely well. using collaborating physicians, there's a set um cadence for when um things need to get done um by the physician since they're in a contract which I have found um to be nice. I have another physician that I use that um I don't really ever hear from, don't really um have meetings with as regularly as um I would like. however, he is not bound in a contract through a company such as Collaborating Docs So, um I think having um the, the contract there and um has a little bit more accountability um for the physicians um so that they're able to really deliver what um you need as an individual. And my experience has been that they are there to support you um And to help guide you not to change your practice or how you want to do things. Um So nothing um but excellent things to say. Thank you so much.

Amy Read: Hey there. patients can reach out to me uh a couple of different ways. I have partnered with Klarity and I am on their website. Helloklarity.com, I am in the States, Michigan, South Carolina, New York and um Maryland. Um so they can find me under those different states. And then I also have my own website and this is where I'm able to um do health coaching for patients across the United States. And my website is www.sunshinefunctionalmedicine.com You can also reach me by calling my office line um Monday through Friday 9 to 5: 2696263445. Again, it's 2696263445. So the three different ways that um potential clients can reach out to learn more about my treatments are the Hello Klarity website. So it's helloklarity.com They can also reach me by dialing um the SunshineFunctional medicine.com or by calling me on the phone 2696263445. Thank you so much. Bye bye.