Nurse Practitioner Joins FirstHealth Behavioral Services Team
| Date Posted: 1/1/0001
PINEHURST – Long before she became a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, Jane Schwarting discovered her “passion” while working with a wilderness therapy program for troubled teens. For seven years, she embraced a primitive lifestyle, working 84 hours a week with adolescents struggling with addiction, substance abuse, physical abuse, violent tendencies and more.
“I was led to my passion early in my career,” says Schwarting, referring to her time working at the wilderness therapy program in east Tennessee. “Helping at-risk youth was both meaningful work and something I really enjoyed doing.
Schwarting grew up in Florida, where she attended Flagler College in St. Augustine. She received a collegiate basketball scholarship and also rowed on the crew team while earning a bachelor of arts degree in recreation management.
Her degree in recreation management landed her a job with the wilderness therapy program that initiated a future career in nursing and behavioral services.
After working for several years, Schwarting went back to school to earn a master’s degree in public health from the University of Tennessee, followed by a bachelor of science degree in nursing from East Tennessee State University.
Schwarting had a varied nursing career at Duke, working in orthopaedics, radiology and psychiatric nursing. She most recently worked at Fort Bragg, also in psychiatric nursing and case management. While working at Fort Bragg, she completed the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program (PMHNP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
While completing the PMHNP program, Schwarting completed two clinical rotations. One rotation was with Womack Army Medical Center’s sleep clinic, where she worked with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. The second rotation involved providing group therapy with FirstHealth Behavioral Services.
“I enjoy facilitating group therapy as well as working with individuals of all ages,” says Schwarting.
“We are very excited to have Jane join our team,” says Mary Silverman, director of FirstHealth Behavioral Services. “She brings a level of professionalism to our program and a true understanding of our military population based on her prior experience at Fort Bragg and Pope AFB.”
“When Jane completed a rotation with our group, we knew at that time she would be an asset to our psychiatric group,” adds Silverman.
Schwarting recently relocated to Moore County from the Fayetteville area. An avid mountain biker, she is a member of the Storm racing team out of Sanford.
Several years ago, Schwarting was approached at a restaurant by a former participant in the wilderness therapy program where she spent several years early in her career. While the former participant recognized Schwarting, or “chief Jane,” as she was called, it took Schwarting a little longer to place the confident professional who appeared before her. Long gone was the troubled teen, who was now replaced by an accomplished law school graduate. The unexpected meeting was a testament to the time Schwarting spent working at the wilderness therapy program that steered her to a career as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
Schwarting will see children and adults at the FirstHealth Outpatient Behavioral Services clinic. She joins a team of board certified psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, activity specialists and social workers who provide individual and group therapy, psycho-educational groups, family support services and comprehensive discharge planning.
For more information about FirstHealth Behavioral Services, call (910) 715-3370 or click here.
