Since graduating from the Johnson Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Patricia “Trisha” Scott-Cummings was selected to take over her clinical supervisor’s practice.

The 2021 post-master’s Nurse Practitioner Certificate graduate did her clinical hours with Robin Odel, “one of the first mental health nurse practitioners in the country,” Trisha adds.

During this experience, Trisha gained valuable insight on mental health care and how to run a private practice. Since 2021, she has run the practice and took over all of Oden’s patients. She was able to learn and observe different methods that she had taken on her own practice such as bringing her dog, Maggie, with her some days.

“She’ll come and sit by the patients, and they’ll just pet her,” she said. “You can see that they just calm down too. I have gotten a couple of patients that love her so much.”

Sometimes, when Maggie isn’t at the practice, her patients will ask where she is.

Through her multitude of degrees and certificates from various educational institutions, Trisha is able to practice treating the body, mind and spirit, leading her to practice the NEW START acronym for self-care. NEW START standing for nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, take time, fresh air, rest, and trusting a higher power, allows for Trisha to work with her patients on establishing their own goals.

“I had a gentleman that his goal was to walk to his mailbox. It took a couple of months. So now, he can get his mail. He can walk around the block. He’s getting some sunshine and fresh air. He’s getting more exercise so he’s eating a little healthier too. All these things play into how they’re doing mentally,” Trisha said.

Trisha designed her practice as if she “went to see a metal health provider, these are things that I would like.” Taking over the private practice has allowed her to spend as much time with her patients, ensuring that they get the best care possible. Her office is warm, inviting and filled with sunlight. She was able to take this practice and make it her own. While Trisha is currently working as a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, she has taken a lot of pathways to get here.

When she was graduating from high school, she looked around at her hometown, finding that there were little opportunities for her. So, she took her success in her own hands and joined the army.

Trisha went into the Army as a draftsman, creating maps for fours years while stationed in Heidelberg, Germany. She was actively out in the field, creating and drawing maps, cloaked in camouflage with her face covered in green face paint.

When she wasn’t out in the field, Trisha was out exploring at all free hours. She was always out on hikes, visits to castles, and exploring new cities.

After her initial four years, she decided to reenlist, but hung up the camo and face paint for something different.

Trisha became an ear, nose and throat technician, working with patients in checkups and getting to assist on minor surgeries. This is where she discovered her love for healthcare.

She left the Army and started her pursuit of a bachelor’s in biology, eventually moving into nursing at Jefferson Community College in New York. With this intense program, she started in a class of 61 and ended graduating with only around 20 people.  

Since getting her first degrees, she went onto work in Colorado Springs in pain management, dialysis, intermediate care, and medical surgery. She bounced around through a few specialties, wanting to find one she was very passionate about.

Then, she found her way to be a case manager for Special Forces. Trisha worked locally at Fort Carson for 13 years. During her time there, they had a mental health case manager who had quit. It took eight months for them to hire another one.

“I realized there was such a deficit of people that just kind of fall through the cracks if no one follows up,” Trisha said. So, she took on the responsibility.

She was doing evaluations for people with suicidal ideation and community visits, to partial hospitalization and long-term programs.

“There wasn’t somebody contacting them asking ‘how are you doing’… So that was something I picked up,” she said.

Trisha was able to bring them to her office to talk about their mental health. She was very attentive as some of these soldiers had lost their close friends.

“When you build a connection, that’s when people talk to you,” she said. Because of her presence, patients had credited her with saving themselves from taking their own lives. “This is an area that I can make a difference. And so that’s what I try to do.”

Now, Trisha has started taking on students as their clinical supervisor. “When I get to the point where I can take students, I will, because I want to give back to my profession,” she explained. Trisha is currently working with three students, two of them from UCCS.

She enjoys being able to give students the experience she had at UCCS. Trisha chose UCCS because of the online program. She wanted to still be able to work, have a family life, and complete her education. “It afforded me the flexibility I needed.” She stated.

Unfortunately, in 2021, Trisha was affected by a house fire. She pushed through, balancing everything at once and remaining in school. “My administration was so supportive… I had people that would reach out. I was just really happy that they were so caring and supportive during that time,” she said. It took Trisha two months of struggling to get work done, but she did it with her lowest grade only being an A-minus.

“I am very much the type of person to push myself. If I am going to do something, I am going to do it to the best of my ability.”

Trisha takes this approach with her every day in anything she does. From the success to her practice to her furthering her education and becoming an educator, she has a drive to propel her.