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Meet Dr. Nienhuis

 

I came to medicine through a less traditional path. I was a social worker specializing in gerontology – the aged. So many of my patients had chronic diseases and a great deal of my job as a social worker was helping them manage their medications, doctor’s appointments, things they needed to do to improve their health. I realized that being a doctor would allow me to do that on a more fundamental basis.

My job is to give you the best medical care I can in a way you can understand and implement. I need to meet you where you are in your life…wherever that is. Especially with chronic diseases like diabetes, you don’t just give patients a pill to treat it. You have to manage everything – medication, diet, lifestyle. I need to know more than just your symptoms…I need a sense of what’s going on in your life.  That way, I can help you understand the importance of these things and how you can manage them. That understanding is the key. It’s the difference between just treating your symptoms and helping you have better health.

Over the years, I’ve learned to adapt to different types of patients…that it’s important to help patients in the way they need to be helped, and not in the way you think they need to be helped. That’s critical to how I deal with each patient.
- Dr. Nienhuis