About Us - Jackie Wagner, NP-C

Jackie Wagner - Certified
Nurse Practitioner

The youngest of 5 kids, my beginnings originated in Paris, France where I lived for several years before my family returned to the states in the late 1960’s residing in the small surfing town of San Clemente, California. There I spent the majority of my life growing up. Just prior to starting high school, my father purchased a large cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo, California and thus began my dual residence: high school during the week in Southern Orange County and weekends in Northern California working on the ranch cutting cattle and fixing fences until my late 20’s. It was during this time I developed a love and skill for endurance riding that I continue to do locally here in Hayden, Idaho.

My attraction for medicine developed shortly after completing a CPR class while pregnant with my first child. By the time my son was born, I was halfway thru Paramedic training and actively participating in the search and rescue for both hurricanes, Bertha and Fran near the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, NC. In that time I experienced my first accounts of death and tragedy that steered me into my interest in trauma and Emergency Medicine.

After the events of 9/11 and now a mother of 2 small children, I left California and sought refuge in the simple beauty and slower pace of CDA and continued my medical education as a Registered Nurse working trauma, ICU/CICU and ER in Spokane, Washington. Life was good and I was finally settling into my new career; my dream job of saving lives and making a difference when the unthinkable happened... I discovered the lifeless body in trauma RM #15 was someone I knew, my best friend Carol, also an RN. Devastated I left my post at the ER shortly after.

But fate has a way of propelling us in directions we would not take otherwise. In Carol’s honor I pursued my studies as a Nurse Practitioner at Gonzaga University determined not only to excel, but achieve the ultimate goal: to make a difference in patient care. My friends death was preventable and the result of what appeared to be an over loaded and understaffed ER department managed by an industry whose mode of operation focused more on the number of visits than in the people who came in for help. My friend was sent home 3 times in one week with anti-nausea medication prior to her collapse. She died of heart and liver failure. She was only 32 years old.

People deserve and desire to be treated with sincere concern and interest. In today’s modern medicine they do not get that. Instead they get apathetic/burned out providers, long wait times and short office visits with high insurance costs and deductibles. Are we really serving the people or are we serving a system?

I am excited to do what I have always wanted to do, treat each patient as a unique person with unique concerns and needs. The atmosphere in my clinic is warm, cozy and clean. It is my ambition to bring back the "care" in healthcare and show by example that Nurse Practitioners are just as, if not more, conscientious and mindful than our medical doctor colleagues. At Family Practice by the Lake, we treat you like family because you ARE family and we strive to bring back an old fashioned Family Practice model that has fallen by the way side in today’s fast paced world.