Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Pittman.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kimberly. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It all started in kindergarten when I made a doctors kit out of paper. I guess I knew then that I wanted to go into the medical field but it was until the 5th grade when I realized I wanted to work in the field of psychiatry. My dad would take me to the bookstore once a month and I wondered over the psychology section and picked up a random book, I think about Schizophrenia.
From then on I would find myself getting more an more books from this section. I didn’t think anything of it other than the material was fascinating but one day my dad asked me “Are you okay? Do you need to talk to someone?” I asked him why he thought that and he said: “Well, you’ve been buying all these books about depression, anxiety and cutting and we just wanted to make sure you were okay.” I had never thought about my parents being concerned about how I felt because of the books I was buying! I told him then that I thought I wanted to be a psychiatrist and he responded with a laugh and a “Now it makes a lot more sense.” So, it just kind of went from there. I went to nursing school at UTMB in Galveston. I was 18 when I was accepted and our class had about 40 people.
When I graduated, we graduated with the MSN students also and I can’t remember how many people were they graduating but I was the only one out of both degrees that was choosing to work in psychiatry. I worked at the Austin State Hospital for a year before going to the University of Virginia to get my MSN to become a nurse practitioner. I think there were only 6 of us in the program for psychiatry compared to the other specialties that had around 40 people in them. I graduated in 2013 with my Master’s and I’ve been working as a family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner since.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Losing a patient to suicide is always difficult for everyone in the practice. Even if it’s not your patient, it’s still very difficult and it’s not something that gets better with time or the longer you practice. It’s not something that happens often in our practice but unfortunately, it comes with the territory. It hasn’t always been smooth but I’m one of the lucky ones who can truly say that they love their job. Of course, it’s a lot of material to know and memorize but when you enjoy the subject that makes it a lot easier.
Insurance can always be an issue because they don’t want to approve this or that medication or treatment and that makes it difficult at times but I also enjoy the challenge. I really enjoy when I get a patient who feels that they have tried everything, every medication, every treatment and technique and then I start to treat them and find a combination of medication or treatment that works and they feel so much better. That’s the best part.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our practice is located in Katy and consists of a D.O., Dr. Surya, a physicians assistant, Keanan Beierle and myself a PMHNP. We all specialize in psychiatry. We offer medication management and we also recently started TMS treatments which have shown good results for patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression.
I feel what sets us apart from other practices is that we really do care. I know that sounds very cliche but it’s true. We always have someone on call, we take the time to call our patients back if they have questions or concerns and we refer out for other treatments if needed such as therapy.
We have an endocrinologist in our building so we often refer out to have hypothyroidism treated and other hormone imbalances that mimic mental illness ruled out. Dr. Surya is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine so we’re open to more holistic treatments on their own or in conjunction with medications. It really is a great practice to learn and work.
What were you like growing up?
I was a really goofy kid! Haha, I was always reading. I played sports throughout my life, took some art classes. I was voted class clown in high school if that helps at all haha I was also super competitive in sports and academics in college but I’ve eased up some in that regard. I watch a lot of soccer especially the English Premier League. I’m a pretty big Chelsea FC fan and I’m slowly getting my boyfriend to watch games as long as they’re not at 6 am.
Contact Info:
- Address: 21308 Provincial Blvd, Katy, TX 77450
- Phone: (832) 321-5180
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