Celebrating Advanced Practice Provider Week: Meet Paige Cisna, NP

From play­ing soc­cer on the field to car­ing for patients in the clin­ic and oper­at­ing room, Paige Cis­na has always had a pas­sion for health and help­ing oth­ers. As an Advanced Prac­tice Provider at South Bend Clin­ic, she shares what inspired her jour­ney into health­care and what she loves most about sup­port­ing patients every day.

Paige Cis­na, NP

Q: What first sparked your inter­est in health­care, and what inspired you to become an Advanced Prac­tice Provider?

A: I have always been inter­est­ed in health and well­ness! In addi­tion, the body has always amazed me! I grew up being ath­let­ic, play­ing soc­cer all through my child­hood, high school, and at the col­le­giate lev­el. I loved that nurs­ing had such a wide vari­ety of things you could do with­in the career that it seemed like a great path. I start­ed my nurs­ing career in the ER as an RN, straight out of nurs­ing school, and soon after com­plet­ing ori­en­ta­tion, I caught myself putting togeth­er my own list of diag­noses and antic­i­pat­ing orders after obtain­ing my own his­to­ries and phys­i­cals. I loved chal­leng­ing my brain in that way that I was not real­ly expect­ing! It was appar­ent at that point that I was made for more and applied to Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er school! I absolute­ly love the widened scope of prac­tice and lev­el of auton­o­my I am allot­ted as an APP.

Q: Was there a per­son or expe­ri­ence that influ­enced your career path?

A: I have an aunt who is a nurse who did some trav­el nurs­ing and end­ed up in Hawaii for a con­tract. She actu­al­ly now has lived there for over 20 years! While spend­ing a sum­mer there as an incom­ing high school fresh­man, I was able to do a lit­tle job shad­ow­ing. At the time, she was doing some home health nurs­ing, as that was what fit best dur­ing that par­tic­u­lar phase of her life. Know­ing her his­to­ry of being able to trav­el and change what she was doing to fit her life real­ly turned me onto the nurs­ing profession.

Q: What do you find most mean­ing­ful about the work you do each day?

A: I thor­ough­ly enjoy help­ing my patients as well as my sur­geons in the OR. I have such a big appre­ci­a­tion for human anato­my, and hav­ing the abil­i­ty to uti­lize that knowl­edge and skill set to help patients in the OR makes me think I have the coolest job!

Q: What’s one les­son you’ve learned from your patients?

A: Work­ing in the wound clin­ic, I have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op rela­tion­ships with some of my more chron­ic or involved wounds that I see on a week­ly basis. Many of these patients have com­plex comor­bidi­ties and dai­ly chal­lenges. Despite that, many of them are so appre­cia­tive and thank­ful, even though they have to make a trek in week­ly. This has taught me to be thank­ful and hap­py even in dif­fi­cult circumstances.

Q: What do you enjoy doing out­side of work, or what’s your favorite way to recharge?

A: Spend­ing time with my hus­band, three boys, and fam­i­ly! My par­ents and sib­lings all live with­in five miles of each oth­er. We are very close and enjoy get­ting togeth­er for week­ends at the lake, ND foot­ball, or just to hang out. I love being active, includ­ing work­ing out, run­ning, etc.

Q: What’s some­thing peo­ple might be sur­prised to learn about you?

A: I am a cat person!

At The South Bend Clin­ic Wound Heal­ing Cen­ter, providers like Paige under­stand that dif­fi­cult-to-heal wounds require spe­cial­ized, per­son­al­ized care. Our expe­ri­enced wound care team is com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing com­pre­hen­sive treat­ment plans that pro­mote heal­ing and improve your qual­i­ty of life. Learn more about the con­di­tions we treat and find a wound care loca­tion near you.