Faith, a passion for serving others and quest for education have all been part of the journey of Sylvia Gillis APRN, FNP-C, a nurse practitioner who is now seeing patients at the Providence Medical Group-Basehor physician clinic.

Sylvia has a distinct connection to Providence Medical Center, Saint John Hospital, and affiliated physician clinics. Sylvia started working in the Environmental Services department at Providence in 2005, cleaning rooms in the Providence Emergency Department. A former security manager realized she was a special employee and asked for her help in serving as a prn PBX operator.

Then she was encouraged by a group of ER nurses to obtain her Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) certificate from the Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) /KC Area Technical Vocational School. She was pregnant with her first son at the time and got the last spot in the course and took it while she was on maternity leave. She then came back to Providence helping patients on the Medical Surgical Floor.

At the time, she was also a patient in a nearby medical clinic affiliated with Providence, where the staff there encouraged her to work at their office as a Medical Assistant. Her journey again had a turn in the road where she was mentored by family care physician LeeAnn Detar Newbert, MD, Sandy Suderman, APRN, and nurse Julie. While she always enjoyed caring for patients, this may be where she first got her interest in caring for patients in primary care setting.
But Sylvia had some more twists and turns in her career, including obtaining her associate degree in nursing from KCKCC, and her bachelor’s degree in nursing and a Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of Saint Mary (USM).

She worked for nine years as a nurse in all the nursing units at Saint John Hospital, including the Senior Behavioral Health Unit, Medical-Surgical Unit, ICU and ER. She also became a mentor there as she precept-ed new hires and hosted multiple nursing students.

“I have been so fortunate to have so many colleagues who have told me ‘I could do this, or You can do that,’” said Sylvia. “There were many mentors who were willing to teach and encourage me in my healthcare career.”

Sylvia says her love for people and the human experience attracted her to the field of medicine. She remembered a frightened patient she cared for in the Saint John Emergency Room that had asked her if she thought he was crazy. She described the experience by saying, “I held his hand and told him I think that you are human, and we are going to help you.”

Sylvia has worked at area Urgent Care and Primary Care Clinics the past two years and is excited to get back to serving patients in the Basehor area. She says she really enjoyed serving as a nurse practitioner for students at KCKCC as well.

Sylvia cares for patients of all ages. She says she loves talking with patients, hearing about their experiences and loves she can help them with health challenges. The Providence Medical Group, Basehor Family Care Clinic is located at 15604 Pinehurst Dr #2, in Basehor, Kansas. Appointments can be made with Sylvia by calling 913-728-2200.