MARENGO – Crawford County native Kelsey Trueblood, now a certified Family Nurse Practitioner, joined the SICHC office at Crawford County Health Care earlier this year. In serving at the Southern Indiana Community Health Care facility, Trueblood fulfilled a life goal of returning to her home county to serve patients.

“I love Crawford County and the people, and regardless of where I was serving in the medical profession, I always hoped that I would one day be able to return,” said Trueblood, who works with Curtis Thill, M.D. and other providers in the Marengo office.

Following the pathway that her mother took as a nurse, Trueblood became a nursing assistant at age 18, first starting out in skilled care. Along the way she became an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), progressing to a certified nursing assistant in 2009, then becoming a nurse working in an intensive care unit and emergency treatment when she completed her Master in Science in Nursing (MSN) degree. Trueblood continued to advance her skills and depth, completing her Family Nurse Practitioner program in 2018. She was formally certified a year later by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. 

“I worked on the ‘two-year plan’ for several years,” she said with humor. “As soon as I would reach one level of certification, it was ‘just two more years’ to the next level.”  As Trueblood progressed, she worked at hospitals and clinics in Jasper, New Albany, and Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. “That ‘two-year plan’ really paid off because I was able to learn and experience health care in depth at each step of the way,” she added.

After working in urgent care facilities in Bloomington and teaching nursing students in pediatric and geriatric rotations at Vincennes University, she fulfilled her career goal of returning to Crawford County. 

“Kelsey’s in-depth experience in a variety of critical settings is serving our patients well in Crawford County,” said Yolanda Yoder, SICHC Medical Director. “Her practice skills, experience and focus work well within the ‘whole body approach’ at Marengo with Dr. Thill and other practitioners.” Trueblood currently sees a variety of patients at the Marengo facility, ranging from infants and young children to pregnant mothers to older residents of Crawford County dealing with chronic conditions.

Coming home as a certified FNP was a long, but rewarding trip for the former graduate of Crawford County High School, but, as she says: “I’m very happy to be here – this is home.”

Trueblood resides in Crawford County with her husband and three children.

 

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About the Southern Indiana Community Health Care (SICHC) nonprofit organization – Well-known as a high-impact health care provider committed to continuity of care, the nonprofit Southern Indiana Community Health Care (SICHC) organization is committed to providing high-quality, comprehensive, community-sensitive health care utilizing Christ-centered principles to medically underserved, rural communities. As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), SICHC serves as a “safety net” provider for vulnerable populations and focuses on increasing access to primary care services for Medicaid and Medicare patients in rural communities. SICHC offers medical care in medically underserved areas of Crawford, Martin, Orange, and Washington counties. SICHC is a member of the National Health Services Corps and receives program funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. SICHC offers services to all persons, regardless of the person’s ability to pay. For more information, please visit https://sichc.org/