Our Providers
Heather Richey, MSN, RN, AGACNP-BC
“Be honest. Be kind.”
That’s the credo to which Heather Richey adheres in making her way as a Nurse Practitioner at Cardiac & Vascular Consultants of Northern Michigan (CVC).
Born and raised in the Calhoun County village of Homer just outside Battle Creek, Richey was 10 when her parents divorced, and she spent much of her childhood at her grandparents’ farm a mile down the road, where she became proficient at “pretty much all the chores.” By age 12, she also was also heavily involved with babysitting on weekends.
Hard work and relationships.
At 14, she was holding down part-time work at the local “Dairy Delight” and later became employed selling clothing at “The Buckle” located in an area mall.
She graduated Homer High School in 2004 as valedictorian alongside just 59 other classmates, an experience she characterizes as being “a big fish in a small pond.”
She enrolled at a liberal arts college after high school, but didn’t find it a good fit, and eventually transferred to Jackson College, where she earned her Certified Nursing Assistant certificate in 2007. After earning her Licensed Practical Nursing and Associate Degree in Nursing degrees at Jackson College, she then transferred to Siena Heights University in Adrian, where she earned her bachelor’s in nursing. In 2016, she was awarded her Master of Science in Nursing in Adult-Gero and Acute Care from Walden University in Minnesota.
She met her then-husband-to-be Kyle, originally from Dewitt, while the two were working in the in the Emergency Department in Jackson. They decided to explore living in Traverse City where they are raising their son Jackson, 2, and two dogs, Tucker and Finn.
Their place on the northwest side of Silver Lake offers them plenty of outdoor experiences. And when they can, they enjoy camping and hiking in other states. They’ve already explored much of Utah and Colorado and the northeastern states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the Canadian Rockies.
Before signing on with CVC, Richey was a hospitalist with Sound Physicians in TC. She loved the job for its team approach, noting that “I relied on my partners, specialists, nurses, aides, therapists, case managers and more. It taught me the importance of teamwork in the workplace, and I will always value those relationships.”
She especially embraced creating personal relationships with patients: “Often, they’re having their worst days, and entrusting me to help them navigate.” She also values patients for teaching her “as much about life and the human experience as I have taught them about their medical conditions and treatment.” Richey approaches medicine as “something that’s very individualized, that includes taking in the whole person,” noting that “even if you are seeing them for one specific thing, you still need to understand them in their entirety.
“I think it’s super important to connect with everyone on a personal level, knowing their family, their pets, anything that’s important to them. You need to find common ground so that your patients come to trust you.”
