Two Greene County Medical Center providers recently received the top degrees in the nursing field.

Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners Diana Smith and Heather Wilson earned their Doctor of Nursing Practice. Both took similar paths toward getting these degrees. Smith works in the Family Medicine Clinic and started working at the medical center in 2010, then left to earn her master’s degree in 2012 before gaining more experience in other medical fields before returning to Greene County Medical Center in 2018.

Wilson started with the medical center in 2013 and then went back to school in 2015 and came back in 2020 to expand mental health services for the region. Both Smith and Wilson decided to pursue their Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees at the same time. 

Nurse Practitioners in Iowa have full practice authority and can diagnose, treat and prescribe medications. Wilson explains what having a DNP degree allows them to also provide.

“What it does is it gives us a little bit more evidence-based practice knowledge. It helps us look at reviewing and research in a different way.”

Smith says she is comfortable with most anything that patients have concerns about.

“I am a Family Nurse Practitioner, so I do see patients from birth throughout their entire life. I do have specific interests in dermatology and procedures and things of that nature. I also have a strong background in ear, nose and throat so I do a lot of ear, nose, throat, sinus type of things and procedures as well. But if there is any need that a patient has if there is any way, I am willing to help. If I can’t help, I can certainly find someone else that can.”

Call either Smith or Wilson to schedule an appointment at 515-386-0500.