Nurse Practioner Jill Elmore is someone who has taken care of people her entire life, so it was only fitting she turned her passion into a career.

Elmore, who recently opened a practice in Andalusia, said her dream of becoming a nurse started as a small girl.

“For the time I was a child, I wanted to be a nurse, because I’m a nurturer,” Elmore said. “Everyone said I should be a teacher, but my mother was always sick and I had to take care of her. I knew that being a nurse was what I wanted to do.”

But, it wasn’t until she was a fulltime emergency room nurse that she recognized her need to be more and to be around more for her children.

And when the solution meant trading in her scrubs for new textbooks, Elmore said she was all for it.

“I started out as an emergency room registered nurse,” Elmore said. “I loved it, but I wanted to do more for my patients. You give a lot of yourself, working in the ER. As my children got older, I wanted to be there more for them, and by becoming a nurse practioner I was able to do that.”

Elmore said she earned her bachelor’s degree from Troy University in 1992 and later enrolled in the University of South Alabama, earning her CRNP license in 2006. After graduating, Elmore worked for dermatologist Dr. Beale in Niceville, Fla., before being invited to practice in Florala. When the drive became too much for the Andalusia resident, Elmore said she began looking for something closer to home.

“And I found that here,” she said. “I opened in May, and the patients here have been so welcoming. I really enjoy patient care.

“I get to know the patient better as a person, and unlike the ER when you see a person one time, my patients keep coming back,” she said.

Elmore said she plans to welcome an internal medicine doctor specializing in diabetes and hypertension in November.

The 1989 Pleasant Home graduate is the daughter of the late Grady and Emmie Cason and is the wife of Clay Elmore. The couple has three children – 16-year-old twins and a 4-year-old.