Katja Austin is a wife, mother, volunteer and rural health care provider.
She works at Middle Park Medical Center located in Kremmling, Colo. as a Family Nurse Practitioner. She practiced as a Registered Nurse for several years, but recently went back to school to further her education and earn an Advanced Practice Nurse degree.
Her broader scope of practice as a nurse directly benefits the community by reducing patient wait time and enabling the clinic to serve more patients. Unfortunately though, it left Katja and her family with significant loan debt. Working at a rural facility with salaries averaging twenty to thirty percent less than their urban counterparts did not make the financial burden any easier for Katja.
Providing care and improving access in Grand County is of the utmost importance to Katja. She focuses on preventive health for women and children and enthusiastically volunteers her time at the local county schools, conducting growth and development classes and participating in school health fairs.