Editor's note: This article has been corrected to reflect that Family Nurse Practitioner Jill Christie is Hohm's direct supervisor.
BROOKINGS – Nurse practitioner Danielle Hohm has opened up the first nurse practitioner’s clinic in Brookings.
Danielle Hohm, FNP, Family Wellness Clinic is located at 317 Sixth Ave., in the same building as Flaskey Chiropractic. The two businesses function independently of each other and have their own offices and patient rooms but work within the same building. The clinic opened its doors on Nov. 18.
The Family Wellness Clinic operates as a place of “first contact” for patients, Hohm said. Her clinic is the place where people can go if they are seeking treatment answers to either temporary or chronic ailments or injuries as well as bringing in questions as to what to do next. Hohm will meet with anyone who needs treatment or has questions about their health and will refer the person to the correct specialist should the need arise.
“There is really a broad spectrum of things that we can do under the Nurse Practitioner Act, but really it comes down to, ‘What are you trained to do?’” Hohm said.
Hohm is a certified nurse practitioner under the South Dakota Board of Nursing and certified under the American Association of Nurse Practitioner Certification Board.
Hohm earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from South Dakota State University in 2009. Since then she has worked in several different tiers of nursing at Sanford in Sioux Falls over the past decade.
“My experience over the past 10 years has been in patient cardiology, cardiac ICU, (and) manager of the cardiology unit for two years,” Hohm said. “A couple of years ago I decided to go to nurse practitioner school so then I transitioned to a pre-surgical/post-surgical recovery area … so a lot of cardiology, ICU management and other areas (of surgical expertise).”
Hohm earned her nurse practitioner master’s degree from Clarkson University in Omaha.
“So really, the dream of starting my own clinic or being a part of a private practice was part of the reason why I went back to school. I just loved that dream of being in a small town, being able to serve people where they are,” Hohm said. “Being able to meet people where they are in a holistic and really personalized manner.”
In 2017, South Dakota passed a law that allows for nurse practitioners to establish independent clinics and practice on their own. The law requires six months of supervised practice by either an MD or another nurse practitioner. Hohm’s direct supervisor is NP Jill Christie.
South Dakota was the 22nd state to allow nurse practitioners to run clinics independently.
Hohm plans on getting certified in various medical trainings in the near future so that she will be more readily able to treat and address any ailments or injuries.
“The goal of being an NP is to treat whatever walks through the door,” Hohm said.
She wants to take a holistic approach to medical treatment.
Holistic doesn’t mean the “hippie” stereotype that people more often assume holistic medicine to mean, she said. Holistic medicine, to Hohm, means that there are multiple aspects to understanding and treating health, and supplying prescriptions for everything isn’t necessarily the way to go.
“Being able to really dig deep and spend time with people and find out what’s going on, and then attack what they’re dealing with from all of these aspects, to actually be able to help them feel better as opposed to just throwing pills at them – not that I think that pills are the devil necessarily,” joked Hohm, “but I think that there are things that we are missing when we just use that.”
“I wanted to increase my influence in being able to help people … I love being there for them when they’re most vulnerable and being able to make a difference in that moment,” Hohm said. “I just knew that if I could increase my knowledge and my education, I could therefore increase the influence to be able to help people to a greater degree. That was why I went back to school – not really even knowing what the result would be when I got done, but with the idea that maybe I could go into private practice and offer a different source of experience for people in small towns.”
For more information, visit the clinic’s Facebook page or www.hohmfwc.com.
Contact Matthew Rhodes at mrhodes@brookingsregister.com.
