Three decades may seem like a long time, but when you’re following your heart and fulfilling your calling, time flies by. Pediatric nurse practitioner Beverly Hargrove answered her calling 32 years ago and has been serving children and families ever since.
This July, Hargrove will bring that calling home when she opens Whistle Stop Pediatrics in Quitman, offering pediatric care and family-centered services in a community she has loved her whole life.
After more than 30 years in nursing, Hargrove’s path has taken her from pediatric hospital floors to child advocacy work, from Dallas-area clinics to rural East Texas. Faith has guided her through each of those seasons.
“I’ve always had that calling,” Hargrove said. “Even in fourth grade, when we had to make a poster about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I said I wanted to be a nurse.”
Hargrove graduated from Tyler Junior College in 1994 and initially worked in hospital nursing. She knew almost immediately that a hospital setting was not where she wanted to be. Within her first year, Hargrove realized her true passion was pediatric clinic care.
“I am not a hospital nurse,” she said with a laugh. “I’m a clinic nurse, and I’ve always been a clinic nurse.”
When asked what pointed her in the direction of pediatric care, Hargrove spoke about her time in nursing school after encountering critically ill children at a care facility where she worked part time. She loved helping the children at the facility and knew she wanted her future to involve caring for children. The experience changed the direction of her career.
“There were a lot of different kids there who really needed help,” she said. “That just stayed with me.”
Hargrove eventually joined the Family Care Center in Tyler, where she became involved in child abuse investigations and later served as a sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE. For years, she worked closely with abused children and families, testified in numerous court cases and received specialized training from law enforcement to better care for vulnerable patients.
The work was emotionally exhausting, she said, but also deeply meaningful.
“How do you handle that?” she recalled being asked. “The grace of God — only by the grace of God.”
In 2008, Hargrove earned her pediatric nurse practitioner degree from Texas Woman’s University and has continued working in pediatric primary care ever since. Along the way, she developed a philosophy she said centers not only on treating children, but also on supporting entire families.
“The nurse practitioners I worked with were more family-oriented,” she said. “That’s what I loved. It wasn’t just fixing the patient and moving on.”
That philosophy is shaping her new Quitman clinic.
Hargrove will make her dream of opening her own clinic a reality this summer. Located behind Scott’s Pharmacy, at the end of the quiet shopping center where a tanning salon and sports store once operated, Whistle Stop Pediatrics will initially open one day a week in July before gradually expanding.
In addition to pediatric care, Hargrove plans to partner with Rose City Wellness Birth Center to provide prenatal support services in Quitman, helping expectant mothers access care closer to home.
She also hopes to offer breastfeeding counseling, car seat education, CPR classes and vaccine clinics as the practice grows.
“This is about serving families,” Hargrove said. “There’s such a need here.”
Hargrove believes many young families in Wood County are looking for more personal, relationship-based health care — something she feels smaller communities are uniquely positioned to provide.
“I think people want something a little more natural, a little more personal,” she said. “They want someone who sees the whole family.”
Her long-term vision extends beyond patient care. Hargrove hopes to eventually mentor nurse practitioner students and encourage more health care providers to serve rural communities.
“My goal is not only to serve the community, but to build a place where new nurse practitioners can come learn rural health care,” she said.
Opening a clinic has been a longtime dream, though Hargrove admits the process has required both sacrifice and faith.
“I’m not going to go into debt doing this,” she said. “But God is providing. He always does.”
For Hargrove, returning to Quitman feels less like starting over and more like coming home.
“I always knew I’d come back to Quitman,” she said.