Page 122 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2017

HEALTHY LIVING ears, nose and throat
From teaching to nursing, helping others is a common thread
story by Lynn Lofton photo by John Stricklin
Leaving the teaching profession to become a nurse is not as far fetched as it may sound; both are dedicated to helping people. That’s what Katherine Hash Thames
did; she became a nurse and then a nurse practitioner. Recently, Doctors Vincent J. Pisciotta and Clay R. Bratton welcomed her to their Sinus Clear practice.
A native of Gulfport, Thames joined the Mississippi Teacher Corps after earning degrees
from Davidson College in North Carolina. “I never set out to teach, but I wanted to help people,” she recalls.
During a teaching stint in the Mississippi Delta, she met her husband, Hardy Thames. She
says teaching is “his calling.”
He currently teaches advanced placement government at Gulfport High School.
A six-month teaching stint in Honduras fostered Thames’ decision to return to school
for a nursing degree. “While
in Honduras I wished I had something concrete to do for people.” A move back to the Coast to be near family enabled her to earn an accelerated nursing degree at the University of South Alabama, where she would later enter the nurse practitioner program while working at Memorial Hospital.
“The main thing I like about
being a nurse practitioner is having relationships with patients,”
Thames, 43, says. “Listening to them is the most important thing. I like to take time and draw them out.”
As a licensed family nurse practitioner, Thames worked at the Primary Care Medical Center with Dr. Roger Reed and says it was a great background.
“Now, I’m interested in having more continuity with patients.
I like the mental and diagnostic challenge, and I really like being able to specialize,” she said. “Being here is fulfilling and everyone has been great.”
Thames believes in the importance of nurse practitioners in the lineup of health care professionals. “We have a shortage of physicians, and there are more and more pressures on them,” she said. “Nurse practitioners gives access to health care that some people might not have otherwise. Today we’re seeing them in most every specialty.”
The Thameses have three children, Benji, 18, Mary, 15, and Simon, 12, and enjoy spending most leisure time with them and their numerous sports and equestrian activities.
www.Sinus-Clear.com
Katherine Hash Thames
122 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • April 2017