Dr. Jason Peter joined UTC’s nursing faculty in 2018. Photo by Angela Foster.
For Mary B. Jackson Assistant Professor of Nursing Jason Peter, service has always been a passion.
Teaching at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Nursing, Peter serves as the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program director, a concentration within UTC’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program.
Peter also leads the Shield Program, which delivers preventive health screenings directly to residents in partnership with the Chattanooga Public Library.
Sponsored by the UTC REACH Fund, nurse practitioner students partner with social work students to provide screenings and connect patients with healthcare, mental health and social support resources.
“I’ve always been really passionate about community healthcare,” Peter said.
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Why did you want to be a nurse?
“The very first thing that led me to nursing was a Christian ministry project when I was in high school. We had to do volunteer work somewhere, and I chose to do it at a nursing home. I was playing games and cards with the older residents.
“From that project, they offered me a position where I was just making beds and playing games and doing a lot of what I was doing volunteering. From there, I became a certified nursing assistant and moved into the hospital. It just kind of like a stepwise progression.”
Could you explain the work you’re doing with the Shield Program?
“The social work department already has a social worker at the library. That social worker is there every day except weekends, precepts social work students and is available to the community.
“We figured that we could somehow team up with social work to bring some more awareness to the community that, ‘Hey, social work is here. They can help you with resources, maybe getting you aligned with some programs.’
“A good way to do that would be to offer health screenings so clients can just come in to get their blood pressure checked, maybe their blood sugar, height and weight. Maybe we do some behavioral health assessments and our nurse practitioner students do that so that they get some of their clinical time.”
Why does this research area interest you?
“I went through the Family Nurse Practitioner program here at UTC, and that really ingrained my love for community health and serving the underserved populations. Getting healthcare to the communities that need it has been super important to me. It’s skewed, I think, that good healthcare in our country only comes to those who have the financial resources for it.
“Our underserved communities … that’s where the health problems are at their highest. I work in community mental health and a lot of the population that I see is unhoused. The libraries are kind of like their hubs for community because that’s where they get their Wi-Fi and resources like these.”
For students interested in nursing or this program, what advice would you give them?
“Nursing is a wonderful field and one of the best things that it has for it is that there are so many different areas that one can work in. Working in the nursing department for seven years and seeing many students come through, a lot of them will say, ‘Hey, I want to be an OB nurse.’ Then they get out and they’re like, ‘You know what? I want to be a mental health nurse.’
“For instance, in the psychiatric nursing world, you can work in community mental health, which, of course, is where my passion is, but you could do private practice or work inpatient. There are just so many different layers that students can work with and different populations they can work with.”
Dr. Jason Peter draws upon extensive clinical experience in both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings.
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