Brooke Fair is a name that sounds like a starlet in a black and white movie. It’s easy to imagine: “Flying Down to Rio” starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and the up and coming, Brooke Fair.
Like Astaire and Rogers, Fair can hold her own on the dance floor. But dancing is only what Fair does in her spare time, as exercise and as a way to release stress that can build up during her day job, which doesn’t involve “lights, camera and action.”
Fair is a family nurse practitioner.
“Nursing is who I am,” Fair explained. “Nursing is part of my life.”
With the usual smile that lights up her face, Fair explained that after high school, nursing seemed like a good career choice for a woman in the Ozarks. After graduating from Missouri State University with an associate’s degree in nursing, Fair found that a logical career choice quickly defined who she was as a person.
“I have never looked back,” Fair said. “I wouldn’t want a different career.”
Fair’s nursing experience ranged from pain management to neuropsych to cardiac patients. She mentored nursing students, was a preceptor to new employees at the hospital where she was employed, and she worked as a charge nurse and nurse manager.
“I have worked in every type of hospital nursing unit except obstetrics,” Fair said.
During her decade long career as an RN, Fair always had the goal of nurse practitioner in mind.
In 2005 Fair received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Missouri -Columbia, and she began the MU master’s program for family nurse practitioners.
“Being a nurse practitioner allows me to step up to providing a different level of care,” Fair explained. “I am able to provide more care for my patients and to teach them about disease processes and how to prevent or slow them down.”
Fair completed her nurse practitioner training in December 2008, and she began studying for her nurse practitioner board certification exam. She interviewed at several locations in South Central Missouri, seeking a position that was close to her home in Willow Springs.
While training as a nurse practitioner, Fair’s program was primarily web-based, and she had the opportunity to do clinical training at sites in West Plains and her hometown of Willow Springs.
Fair planned to pass her nurse practitioner board exam and take a job after passing her exam. As she interviewed at clinics in South Central Missouri, Fair had one goal in mind. “I wanted to find a place where I could give my patients the best possible care,” she said.
Fair is friends with Melissa Bosserman, licensed social worker and administrator at Texas County Memorial Hospital Hospice of Care. Bosserman assisted in connecting Fair with TCMH when they began looking for a nurse practitioner to fill the soon to be vacated position held by Debra Buckle.
The interview process between Fair and TCMH flowed like a well-choreographed dance. Fair interviewed at TCMH on a Friday, took and passed her board exam the following week, accepted the TCMH job just a few days later, and within a month found herself sitting in her own office in the TCMH Medical Complex.
With her choice of jobs as a nurse practitioner, why TCMH?
“TCMH felt like a family,” Fair explained, adding that family is very important to her.
Fair grew up in Willow Springs, and her parents live there today. “My family has always kept me close to this area,” Fair said.
Fair’s husband, Brody, owns a barbershop in Willow Springs. They have two daughters, Emily, eight, and Madelyn, three. They hope to build a house in the Willow Springs area.
When she’s not working, Fair “loves to spend time with my girls”. Emily and Madelyn enjoy their own dance classes like their mom. Brody Fair doesn’t dance, but the whole family enjoys fishing together or watching a St. Louis Cardinals’ game.
“TCMH strives to recruit professionals on all levels that are dedicated to their fields and that want to serve their communities,” said Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH. “Brooke not only fills an important need in our clinic, she is an ideal recruit for us as someone that grew up in the area and wants to work as a primary care provider in our community.”
Fair is currently working with Dr. Michael Moore and Buckle at the medical complex. Buckle is transitioning her patients over to Fair and will continue to aid in that process for the next few months. When Dr. Russell Huq arrives at the TCMH Medical Complex in September, Fair will collaborate with him.
In working at the TCMH Medical Complex, Fair plans to see patients of all ages from pediatrics to geriatrics. She will provide healthy child exams, well-woman care and the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Brooke Fair may sound like the name of a 1930s movie star, but it’s actually the name of a down to earth and compassionate nurse practitioner that wants her patients to “just call me Brooke.”
Fair is accepting new patients. Appointments can be made by calling the clinic at 417-967-5435.