Nurse Practitioner Joins FirstHealth Behavioral Services Team
| Date Posted: 9/19/2019
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Kelly King, PMHNP |
PINEHURST- Kelly King, PMHNP, worked as an inpatient behavioral health nurse for 15 years before deciding to go back to school to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
According to King, the incredible need for more behavioral health providers is what drove her to become an advanced practice provider.
“I went back to school because there was such a need in the field,” she said. “There is a shortage of providers in behavioral health, and I wanted to do more to help.”
At FirstHealth, King will work primarily in the outpatient behavioral clinic located in the Specialty Centers Building on the campus of Moore Regional Hospital. She will see patients of all ages but has particular interest in children, adolescents and young adults.
King earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Indiana Wesleyan University in Cincinnati, Ohio and a master’s degree in nursing from the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program at Eastern Kentucky University.
Prior to joining FirstHealth, she worked most recently as a registered nurse on an inpatient adolescent behavioral health unit at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Before that, she served in nursing leadership roles at St. Elizabeth Healthcare as assistant nursing manager on a chemical dependency unit and adult mental health unit and later as director of nursing on an adolescent and child behavioral health unit.
“We are thrilled that Kelly has joined our team of exceptional behavioral health providers,” said Mary Silverman, administrative director for FirstHealth Behavioral Services. “Her experience in the mental health field coupled with her passion to help people obtain and maintain optimal mental health make her an asset to our team.”
King joins a FirstHealth 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 visit www.firsthealth.org/behavioral.
