The sign outside the new Empower Healthcare clinic in Pahokee, Florida, pledges to provide “The healthcare you deserve.” Inside the modest tan and brick building that sits on the grounds of First United Methodist Church, nurse practitioner and Palm Health Foundation nursing scholar Dr. Jinga Oglesby-Brihm is delivering on the clinic’s promise by providing much-needed health services interlaced with dignity, trust, and love—a word she often uses to describe her care for the people of the Glades region.
“I want this to be a place where we are loving on the community,” she said.
Dr. Oglesby-Brihm fell in love with the Lake Okeechobee community while studying for her doctorate at the Florida Atlantic University Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, a dream made possible by a Palm Health Foundation scholarship. As a Doctor of Nursing Practice student, Dr. Oglesby-Brihm made house calls in the Glades, an experience that opened her eyes to the rural area’s healthcare disparities. Affordability, transportation, and access (many women’s, mental health, and specialist services are 20 miles away or more) impact the health of residents. Encouraged by her late husband, Mashawn Brihm—her clinic partner, inspiration, and legacy—Dr. Oglesby-Brihm began to envision a new dream: to strengthen the Glades community by increasing access to healthcare regardless of ability to pay via a clinic, virtual visits, and house calls.
