Dr. Donna Patterson, a board-certified nurse practitioner specializing in cardiology, shares her remarkable journey from a 15-year banking career to healthcare. As owner of Rejuvenir health med Spa, Dr. Patterson has dedicated herself to promoting preventive care and weight loss to address health disparities affecting underserved communities. Her personal experiences with both sides of the healthcare system have shaped her mission to transform lives by focusing on disease prevention rather than just treatment.
What inspired you to become a nurse practitioner? And how did your background influence this decision?
Initially, I worked in banking for 15 years. I’ve always wanted to be a nurse growing up. My grandfather was diagnosed with cancer when I was a young age and I basically could not help him. He was in so much pain, and I would visit him in the hospital, and I felt useless for the most part, because there’s nothing I could do personally to help him, but I saw these nurses that were taking care of him, and I was inspired because I wanted to be able to make a difference in somebody’s life, and I figured if I couldn’t help my grandfather, then I can help others who may be going through the same thing.
What were some of the challenges to switch from banking to healthcare?
It wasn’t challenging at all. In 2009 the economy crashed, I’ve always wanted to go to nursing school, but being an adult having a family, it’s just difficult quitting your job and going back to school, so I did my banking career. Every year I would apply to nursing school, but I never followed through on the application. It would just stop when they asked me for documents, but in 2008, 2009, when the economy crashed, I lost my job at the bank, and so I was forced to go to school, of course, and of course it was my opportunity to pursue what I always wanted to do, and I enrolled in nursing school. So I had no choice at that time, I would say, because it was my only plan.
How has being an African American woman shaped your experience in the healthcare field? And in what ways do you feel like it could be an asset?
It has actually shaped my perspective on how patients are treated. It has shaped my perspective on the disease that affect the African American community like we mentioned before, the diabetes, the high blood pressure, the heart attack and stroke, and because it stem from obesity, of course, but also it stems from just lack of access. People are not being educated, especially the underserved communities. They’re not given the resources that they need, they may not be able to afford the insurance that are high cost, and so no one is teaching us as minorities how to prevent disease.
In the hospital setting I see that we’re more reactive in the way we treat our patients. You come in and you’re sick, we will take care of you, but we’re not teaching you how to prevent these diseases, and I call it a Band-aid. We put a Band-aid on your problem and give you a prescription for a pill, and you keep coming back. My head hurts, you get a pill, my back hurts, you get a pill. I can’t sleep, you get a pill, and so that has shaped the way I perceive health care as an African American, because I, too, use the system, and when I was in nursing school I had to decrease my time, that I was working from full time to PRN, and I lost my insurance at that time, and I could not access the system, because one I could not afford the insurance on the marketplace and two, I was working in a hospital, but I had no insurance, and I had a patient said to me one day, “You’re so lucky, you guys work here, you must have great insurance”, not realizing I am one of those people. I’m providing care, but I myself did not have insurance, and I could not afford healthcare, even though I work in the system.
Were there any milestones or moments in your career that you think was a turning point or validation for you?
Being able to help and that was one reason why I started Rejuvenere Health Med Spa, the milestone for me was seeing that people who were African American, people who had high blood pressure diabetes, a high cholesterol were considered high risk for dying from Covid. And that was more like the haha moment for me, and so my milestone coming from that was to do something about it in terms of I want to make a difference in the life of people, so that we, as a community, we as a people, are not always at the lower tandem pole, so to speak, when it comes to receiving care and living healthy lifestyle, and so my milestone was starting a business that catered to helping people learn how to take better care of themselves.
What are some of the turning points with your business where you felt like it was making sense and helping the community?
We’ve only been in business for a year and a half, so it has been challenging, especially during the first year, but the haha moment comes for me in business through my client, as I’m seeing them progressing and making changes to their lives, and they’re telling me, I could not cross my legs sitting down before, and now look at me, or I used to have all this pain in my knees, I couldn’t walk or exercise, and I don’t have pain anymore. Currently, I have clients that are down 60 plus pounds, 50 plus pounds in their weight loss journey.
And so even a teenager who’s 17 years old, she told me, she said, I won’t be the fat friend anymore, because she has lost 57 pounds, and so her confidence has soared, and I realized that I’m making a difference in people’s lives, and I think that was my ultimate purpose. Yes, I want to make money, because the more money I make in business, the more people I feel I can help.
What advice would you give to someone who is preparing for board certification? And what resources did you find helpful?
Initially going up to take my exam, I felt like I did not know what I was doing, so I enrolled in a review course, Leik Review. It was a 5 day course, so every day at 8 AM you logged on until about 2:30, and they’ll just review questions and go through that, but in studying for the exam, I committed myself for 6 weeks, that I would study for 8 hours per day, and when that 8 hour time frame was up I would have dinner and spend time with the family, and before bed I would go back and read again.
Another point that I would like to make is that every minute counts. So if you have a 15 min time block that you are in between classes, or you have some downtime. Utilize that time to read something, you could go over one question. You could go do a 15 minute quick review on Quizlet, it makes a difference, because those times add up, and it’s amazing how much you can get accomplished versus someone who just sit around and surf their phone and surf social media. You are literally learning and preparing yourself, and that is what made a difference in my preparation.
Is this passion worth the risk, the trials and tribulations? Monetarily, emotionally, spiritually, physically, is it worth it?
Absolutely! I would do it again if I have to. Banking in itself was fulfilling, but not to this extent that I am fulfilled with patients and with clients. Because, yes, you can help someone with their finances and do their withdrawals and plan, but when you’re actually changing someone’s life and their outcome, and the quality of life that they’re able to have, that is more fulfilling than anything else.
I’ve always said that when I lost my job in banking initially, I thought it was the worst thing that had happened to me, but looking back, I said it was the best thing that had happened to me, because it allowed me to step into this career that I believe I was born to do, and so with the financial commitment, I have a lot of student loans, my student loan is a house payment, but would I do it again? Absolutely because it has allowed me to live the life that I have.
I started with my associate’s degree, then I went back and got my bachelor’s, and I got my master’s, and I went back and got my doctoral degree, and so I just kept going because I wanted to practice at the highest level.
It is like I said, even though I owe that much money in student loan, it has afforded me the life that I now live not only in terms of taking care of people and helping people, but the life that I live outside of that. Yes, we can always say they don’t pay us enough, we can always make more money, but healthcare is always going to be around. People are always going to be sick, and people will always need help.
