Meet Our New Nurse Practitioner

Kathy Cosgrove has recently been hired as Crisis Ministries’ Nurse Practitioner for our Health Clinic. Kathy has over thirty years of nursing experience. As a nurse and a nurse practitioner she has worked in a variety of community health venues. Kathy spent eight years as the Summerville High School nurse and watched the school grow from 1,100 students to over 3,000. Her decision to leave there was influenced by her acceptance into the MUSC graduate nursing program to obtain an MSN and Family Nurse Practitioner certification. After receiving her master's, she joined DHEC as an RN providing home visits for Medicad mothers and their newborn infants. Kathy accepted a DHEC Region Seven Women's Health nurse practitioner position in 2003 and added an STD clinic for males to her practice in 2004. Kathy has enjoyed learning from all of her previous jobs because she has been able to apply so many of her previous experiences in her new position.

Kathy was intrigued when she learned of the opening at Crisis Ministries. What intrigued her most was the ability to broaden her practice skills; she wanted to work with a variety of patients.  Since Kathy has been here, she says, “There’s never a dull moment and the days go by very quickly.” Her focus right now is to increase the number of clients being seen in the clinic, help clients to self-manage their healthcare options, and assist clients with their medications.

In the future, one thing Kathy would like to see is a partnership or in-house dental provider. Kathy mentions most of our guests have not had access to routine dental care and as a result many of our clients have dental problems. Kathy says, “Our clients could benefit greatly from routine cleanings and having minor dental work performed. Unfortunately, for many of our clients the only option is extractions and extractions should only be used as a last resort.”

Kathy is excited to be a part of Crisis Ministries' staff, she says, “Crisis Ministries guests need people to advocate for their healthcare and to be encouraged to self-manage their own health. I enjoy being able to provide that for them.”

Crisis Ministries on the Today Show

Crisis Ministries was featured during Adam Shephard's interview for his book, Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream, on the Today Show on February 26th.

Adam stayed at Crisis Ministries for the first two months of his journey to prove the American Dream is still alive.

Click here to see the interview.