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Getting To Know Our Providers - Krista Carle

Krista Carle, DNP, APRN-FNP: Hi, my name is Krista Carle. I am a Doctor of Nurse Practitioner which means I'm an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and a Family Nurse Practitioner. I currently work at Memorial Medical Clinic. I am a Certified National Academy Dermatology Nurse Practitioner. I do work in basic dermatology, here at Memorial Medical Clinic in Carthage, Illinois.

I've been in healthcare, well, I guess 24 years. I started out going to school for my bachelor's and as I worked through school, I was a certified nurse's aide at St Louis Barnes Jewish. I also then worked as a surgery tech. I went up and worked as a student nurse all during getting my bachelor's in nursing.

Once I completed my bachelor's in nursing, then I worked as an ER nurse in Hannibal, Missouri. And then after about a year working there, I decided that I wanted to go to school for nurse practitioner. So I started working at Blessing because they had a program that then paid for nurse practitioners.

And so I started working there in the emergency room. As I worked through school, I became, I got my masters of a family nurse practitioner. And then after working about 10 years in family practice, I decided to move on and do something else. Not that I didn't love family practice. I love my community and I really knew there was a need for dermatology.

I got pushed by my CEO to go on to school more and then I started the Doctor of nurse practitioner program out of St. Francis in Peoria, Illinois, and started that program and then graduated in 2019 with my doctorate of nurse practitioner; also at the same time going for clinicals and doing my national Academy dermatology nurse practitioner.

So I got both of those degrees and started in dermatology here at Memorial Medical Clinic. Still working for Memorial Hospital and have now been doing dermatology for three years, which I absolutely love. I've loved every different path of healthcare that I've been in, but I do feel like I've been in a lot of different paths and that probably makes me a little more well-rounded to help out with chronic patients with a lot of skin disease and issues, complicated cases.

You know, I think I have that very competitive nature that I want to figure out the puzzle, I want to figure out the problem. And I love working with patients. And really, we have an underserved population here in Hancock County, but really small area, rural areas in Illinois. And I really feel like because we didn't have dermatology within a 60 mile radius, and sometimes a 30 mile radius, but at this point, pretty much 30 to 60.

I feel like I get really complicated cases from other family nurse practitioners, family physicians that just are a little puzzled and need some help. And I think that just that complicated case of the skin issues is definitely what I look forward to and really try to figure out what's going on with the patient. And I really, really love it.

Most of the time patients will tell you, if you just listen, as a provider, they will tell you pretty much what's wrong with them. Yes, they have a lot of different theories and I've sort of got to put those together and organize them. But I think the most valuable I guess motto for healthcare and for taking care of patients is really to just listen to the patient and try to get all of their information from all the other providers that have taken care of them and tried to figure out the puzzle. If you don't do well at collecting that information, not only from the patient by asking the appropriate questions, but also from getting medical records and prior diagnostics and prior lab testing that's been done; then you can repeat and just head down this same path that's been done time after time again. And so I feel like just looking at the whole well-rounded person along with doing a little work to figure out the history of that patient and their problem will really give you the answers, and that's what I like to do.

I am actually from Carthage, Illinois where I practice. I went away to school, but I'm a homegrown girl that really enjoys and loves my community. I do have four kids. I have three girls and a boy. My oldest is 13, and then I have an 11 year old Paisley. Um, Lexis is my 13 year old, and then Ruby, who will be 10 next week. And Max , my youngest, that poor boy, he's seven years old and they are my pride and joy. I am married to my high school sweetheart, so that's what brought me to Carthage, Justin, and he's a farmer in the area. He works with my dad and so I help out with the farming bills and running food as often as I can on my days off and my hours after work.

But also I spend it with my kids. They're all in sports, so we're running between track and volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball and really just being their secretary after work, running them around. I'm so lucky that I can work and honestly help out in the community with everyday work along with seeing people in the community. I'm lucky to have been able to be offered a position here and I really value being able to not only, you know, work in the community, but also take care of those around.

But here at Memorial Hospital I was pushed to go on to school and I feel like Ada Bear, my CEO really helped me to decide what path to go on and I've enjoyed all those aspects. It is a challenge working with the people that you go to the grocery store with. And honestly, I didn't know if I could enjoy that challenge.

But I absolutely do. It's really nice when your friend you know, you see at the grocery store and you get positive feedback. It is friend, family that is who I treat and that usually I know most families around our community. So it really is nice to see good results and I value that.