Zivian Spotlight: Charisse Fullwood, BSN, MSN, PMHNP-BC
Zivian Health is proud to support advanced practice clinicians. In addition to providing healthcare compliance and collaboration support, we want to share the stories of the healthcare professionals we serve.
Today we spotlight Charisse Fullwood, a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) from North Carolina.
Fullwood spoke with us about her journey as a healthcare professional and her experience with Zivian Health. Read on to learn more!
Charisse Fullwood’s Healthcare Journey
Charisse Fullwood was raised in Englewood NJ, and Supply, NC (outside of Wilmington, NC). She has a wide variety of interests and passions, which has fueled her unique healthcare journey.
Fullwood is a former cosmetologist and aesthetic specialist of 7 years. “Even now I do my own hair and nails,” she said with a smile.
However, Fullwood always wanted to be a nurse. “I always knew it was something that I wanted to do,” she recalled. “It felt like a calling, and it was one of the areas in my life where I have been able to truly excel.”
Fullwood set aside her work as a cosmetologist and entered Southeastern Community College’s nursing program in Whiteville, NC, one of the state’s oldest nursing schools.
After graduation, Fullwood entered the workforce and practiced for 5 years in various women’s health settings. She says the experience of having her own children was a major inspiration for pursuing this path.
During this time, Fullwood’s experience assisting, reassuring, and educating mothers during high-risk labors made a major impact on her. She cared for many women who suffered traumatic deliveries and postpartum depression or developed depression during their long term antepartum/postpartum stays in the hospital.
Fullwood noticed a lack of mental health resources for these patients.
“I saw women that were in the hospital with serious conditions for weeks who would become depressed,” she said. “And I saw that there was no one to speak with patients about what was going on with them psychologically.”
This observation inspired her to leave labor and delivery to pursue Psychiatry, where she could assist in the shortage of mental health care providers for women.
Psychiatric Experience
Over the next 4 years, Fullwood worked in a variety of settings to gain psychiatric experience, including geriatric psychiatry, general psychiatry, substance abuse detox, and acute psychosis units.
During this time, she earned her Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certification.
Coming Full Circle: Mind & Body Renew
It was after earning her PMHNP certification that Fullwood decided to “wrap all her life experience up into one.”
Fullwood recently opened her own practice, Mind & Body Renew, an integrative psychiatric and wellness practice focused on renewal of the mind, body and spirit. For Fullwood, this new endeavor is a perfect alignment of her experience in cosmetology and aesthetics, women’s health, and psychiatry.
So far, she is thoroughly fulfilled by the work she does with her new practice.
“I love it,” she said. “I love working for myself, and I love making people feel good. I can talk to people about what’s going on in their lives and I can make them feel pretty. I am a firm believer that how you feel on the inside is reflected on the outside, and I help my patients with both of those things.”
Fullwood also added a note of gratitude when reflecting on her practice, saying, “My business has been a journey in the making of my past 20 years of work experience. It’s truly a joy and my life’s passion to serve my patients.”
Experience with Zivian Health
While Fullwood was in the process of getting her practice up and running, she also needed to find a collaborating physician. After experiencing some challenges with other services, she found Zivian.
She says her experience has been “smooth sailing.”
“It took just a day or two to match me with a physician that met all my needs,” she said. “My collaborator is amazing. She communicates with me so well – I could not have asked for a better person.”
We were thrilled to hear that Zivian has taken care of Fullwood’s compliance needs and helped her stay focused on her practice.
“It was effortless – everything has been easy,” said Fullwood. “I am so grateful and appreciative. I tell everyone I can, ‘if you need a collaborator, Zivian is the place to go.’”
Zivian Health Enables Compliant Healthcare Collaborations
Zivian thanks Charisse Fullwood for sharing her story with us! We’re proud to be of service during an important time in her career as a Nurse Practitioner. We look forward to our continued partnership and the future success of Mind & Body Renew.
Zivian empowers Advanced Practice Providers by connecting them with physicians inside a secure and convenient platform to form long-term, compliant collaborations.
