We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alison Percowycz, MSN, FNP-C a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alison, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.
When I was looking for my first job after completing my Master’s Degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner, the job market in Denver was pretty saturated in primary care and family practice settings. I had a couple of interviews with family practices that the pay was less than I was making as a Registered Nurse in the hospital and offered much to be desired as far as benefits and paid time off. I shifted my focus and started looking for jobs outside of family practice and went back to one of my first medical specialties, Neurology. I interviewed at the University of Colorado in several neurology subspecialties. I ultimately ended up choosing Headache and Pain medicine, because I thought my practice philosophies, including lifestyle and integrative medicine would blend quite nicely and I would be able to use them to help patients with chronic pain conditions. I also really liked the head of the division who, during the interview told me that chronic pain is sometimes a challenging area to work, but even when patients have tried many treatments, we can always give them hope and this really stuck with me. Through my time working at the University of Colorado. I’ve had many opportunities to further my education and practice, I learned what types of patients I enjoyed seeing and what parts of the medical practice I thought worked well. During this time I became more immersed in Integrative and Functional medicine and ultimately decided to take a leap of faith and open my own practice that aligned with my passion and care philosophy.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Functional Medicine Provider. I have spent most of my career working in academic medical centers in Denver and Washington, DC. While in DC, I worked at Georgetown University Hospital, where I worked in the Neurosurgical ICU. I quickly came to see a trend of what landed most patients in the hospital, chronic disease and realized that I wanted to be on the preventive side of healthcare so, I went back to school at George Washington University and became a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Just a few of years ago, as I was going through my own journey to health as a new mom, I realized my moral compass was being pulled away from the traditional healthcare model. In the traditional healthcare system, there is simply a lack of time and emphasis on disease prevention and lifestyle medicine and this was becoming more and more my passion. I sought out a more integrative, holistic approach and began studying at the Institute for Functional Medicine where they teach science-based, lifestyle approaches to get to the root cause of disease and illness. I became my own first patient and started to heal using food as medicine, targeted supplements and lifestyle approaches and I knew I had to share this with the world and thus, Wild Rice Wellness was born.
At present, I am a still a part-time faculty member at the University of Colorado in the Department of Neurology where I work with patients to help manage migraine and chronic pain disorders using an integrative approach. I am also the Owner and Practitioner at Wild Rice Wellness where I see patients of all kinds who want to up-level their health and achieve optimal wellness.
As a mom myself, I am passionate about working with women during the pregnancy and postpartum period to optimize their health so that they can meet the demands of their lives and enjoy motherhood. I have a special interest in working with athletes, particularly endurance athletes, who need their health to keep up with their training requirements and athletic endeavors. These particular groups have unique needs that often are not addressed by the conventional medical model, but I believe functional medicine has so much to offer. I also enjoying working with those who simply want to up-level their health to feel better and live longer. I use a combination of conventional, functional and lifestyle medicine to help patients meet their goals and create optimal wellness to patients throughout Colorado via Telehealth.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Beyond specialty training and knowledge, the thing that creates a successful medical practice, is the ability to sit back and actually listen to the patients story. Often times, providers are so eager to solve their patients’ problems that they are too busy formulating plans in their head while their patients are talking. Being able to truly listen and allow the patient time and space to tell their story is a critical piece in finding out what the underlying problem may be. Patients want to feel heard and allowing them to tell their story fully in a practice is the key to a successful patient-provider relationship and a successful practice.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I would, without question, choose the same profession all over if given the opportunity. Nursing has taught me and and given me so much in my life. While, my specialty has ebbed and flowed throughout my career, the foundations of nursing and healing have remained constant. There is truly no better feeling than helping someone heal and knowing that you were a part of it. I can’t imagine any other profession or career as gratifying as this one. I feel blessed every day that patients trust me to be a part of their lives and healing journeys.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wildricewellness.com
- Instagram: @wildricewellness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildricewellness
- Linkedin: Alison Percowycz
Image Credits
Joanne Furton for all photos