Humana Nurses: Elaine Grimes-Dixon and Clinical Work at CenterWell

Close your eyes, and picture a nurse. Is your mental image someone in scrubs working in a hospital or doctor’s office? Do you picture someone helping patients on the phone, or coming to a patient’s home to provide care?

There are 4 million registered nurses in the U.S. – and nearly 10,000 nurses working at Humana. Nurses shape the way Humana serves our members and patients, providing a range of support and serving in roles beyond traditional bedside care. 

In honor of Nurses Month and an impressive 20-year run as America’s most trusted profession, we’re profiling four people who represent the broad and diverse nature of Humana nurses.   

Meet Elaine Grimes-Dixon, a CenterWell nurse practitioner who began her career as a registered nurse 29 years ago. After about 15 years of working as a Humana case management nurse, Elaine decided to shift paths. She went back to school, became a Nurse Practitioner and now works with patients at a CenterWell location. 

Here’s how Elaine describes her journey in the nursing field: 

I joined the Humana family 17 years ago, working as a nurse in case management. That role gave me a lot of satisfaction because I was managing the care of members with chronic conditions. I grew tremendously working in several capacities – onsite, work-from-home, and reviewing medical necessity for alternate levels of care.

In 2019, I wanted to grow my career, so I took advantage of Humana’s programs for college partnerships and tuition assistance. I went back to school and became board-certified, specializing in adults and geriatrics as an Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner (AGNP-BC).

The pandemic made me self-evaluate happiness, and I concluded I needed to serve again in a hands-on role. My love of senior-focused primary care drew me to a Nurse Practitioner role at CenterWell. It has been an amazing journey and I am truly enjoying my role!

Every day, I get to focus on preventative health and help people manage chronic conditions. Seeing seniors aging gracefully motivates me to take better care of myself. I’ve learned that in-clinic nursing roles are different. They require a lot of flexibility and willingness to go the extra mile for patients and the team, and In-clinic nurses have to be willing to set the tone and keep the entire care team positive. 

Recently, I worked with a patient who had a bad experience with healthcare and therefore chose not to trust providers. The patient told me she learned about CenterWell from a neighbor at her assisted living facility, who told her about the great new clinic down the street. The first thing I noticed about this patient was how she answered questions – with a flat affect and a lack of emotions. Thanks to my years of experience as a case management nurse and now my Nurse Practitioner role, I knew to use motivational interviewing techniques to reach her. The patient opened up and began to trust me. That allowed me to work with her, so together we were able to improve her preventative health outcomes. She’s happy with her experience with me and CenterWell, and I know it because she loves to talk about it. I now have several patients who live in her building, and they come to see me because they’ve heard of the great experience that patient had. I just smile, because I know all I want to do is serve.