Digital Meet and Greet: Dave Fields, PMHNP

I’m positive you’re wondering who would embark on the arduous and somewhat antiquated journey of starting a blog in the year of 2024–that would be me. My name is Dave Fields, and I’m the Fields in question behind Fields Psychiatric Consultants. I’ve started this blog to answer the questions I’m sure you’re dying to ask regarding the field of psychiatry, as well as the questions you haven’t considered, don’t want answers to, and likely never will. I stand for nothing if not total transparency; think of this as my psychiatric echo chamber and feel free to weigh in. But before we get into all of that, I’d like to use this first post to give you a quick overview of Fields Psychiatric Consultants and an introduction to what I do. 

What do we do at Fields Psychiatric Consultants? 

I could direct you to the Treatment page of our website for a more conventional list of the services we provide, or I could simply say this: I believe in any approach as long as it works, and I’m very open minded. Stagnancy does not have a place in psychiatry, where we are dealing with the dynamic nature of humans and human minds. 

There’s certainly value in traditional psychiatric approaches such as medication and psychotherapy; many have found relief from the implementation of these tools as part of their care. But they are just that–tools–and we believe in keeping a full kit of them around. You’d rather see a nutritionist and discuss how changes to your diet may impact your mental health? Let’s do it. You’d like to book a spiritual retreat in South America, or discuss your path to healing with a higher power? Let’s start researching ways to get that ball rolling for you. We emphasize flexibility in the way we administer treatment and want to hear from your insights; this is your health, so you should have a say in how you’d like to proceed in your psychiatric treatment. 

Our staff are very responsive and we like to move quickly as we understand how difficult it is to live in a state of mental turmoil and distress. We treat psychiatric conditions with the same compassion and urgency as a physical condition because there is no health without a healthy mind, they are one and the same. And we’ll do it your way, even if that means challenging conventional treatment models–we believe you know yourself best and we’re here to listen and offer experience-based guidance. 

Mālama Kū'oko'a: Nurturing with Resolve

My professional breadth and interest boils down to one sentence: I do a little bit of everything, and I’ll see just about anyone. I grew tired of working for profit-driven organizations that turn down patients due to the “wrong” insurance or diagnoses. I’m starkly not profit-motivated and thus work with a diverse group of patients with a range of diagnoses, cultural backgrounds, and needs, and do so with a mixture of patient-led care and clinical expertise. We aim to make treatment accessible by providing a variety of therapeutic options regardless of insurance coverage. Everyone deserves access to competent and compassionate mental health care, and your health shouldn’t be contingent upon the profit of another. 

Additionally, I grew up in Hawai’i; I was raised in Mililani from the age of two. It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to serve the community that fostered me, and it instilled in me a deep respect for cultural diversity and the unique health needs of the island. What I consider to be my biggest professional achievements have all been opportunities to serve my community: I was the first provider to implement an Assisted Community Treatment order on the island of Maui, and I was the first psychiatric APRN  to work in the Queen’s Punchbowl Campus Psychiatric Emergency Room, which is the busiest psychiatric emergency department in the state. I’ve always believed in a boots-on-the-ground approach to medicine; if we wait for systemic change to catch up to patient needs, we’ll be waiting indefinitely–better to do what we can right now. 

Meet Your Provider

I know you’re most enthused to read this section, which is why I forced you to read all of my practice information first. A brief overview of my education: I attended Grambling State University, a historically Black college, for my undergraduate nursing degree, later finishing at Northwestern State University in Louisiana. I continued my education at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, where I received my Master’s Degree in Nursing. I am a licensed Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) with a Psychiatric Mental Health Certification. 

I have wide interests within the field of psychiatry: addiction, severe mental illness (SMI), forensic psychiatry, as well as the social boundaries that surround psychiatric conditions, such as the housing crisis. I treat clients from across the span of life, from children to geriatric patients. I’ve worked in the Texas State Hospital System with forensic mentally ill patients, Family Treatment Centers for inpatient treatment of children and adolescents in Hawai’i, and lectured in the University of Hawai’i system, among other pursuits. I love the field of psychiatry too much to ever leave, and I want to provide care to patients regardless of their standing–whether they’re homeless or in rehab. All that separates us in life is a thin set of circumstances, so I’ve tried to base my practice on a foundation of mutual partnership and respect, balancing my patient-led ideals with realism about how the medical system works and consequently, how best to treat patients. 
 

My profession aside, I also enjoy doing other things besides intensely studying the human psyche, though I do admit it takes up most of my time. I like to travel, watch movies, musicals, and anime (One Piece being my all-time favorite, followed by Yu Yu Hakusho), dine at restaurants, and hang out with my dog, Gary. I try to take care of my own mental health as much as possible to counterbalance the demands of the profession, because ensuring I have a good work-life balance means I can provide the best care to patients. 

On a closing note: if you stumbled upon this blog and enjoyed reading this article, check back in again soon. I’ll be posting semi-regularly on topics of interest and controversy within psychiatry while wholly keeping it real. If I wanted to be involved with the status quo, I would have started a podcast (...though this is still in consideration. I apply the aforementioned flexible approaches to my own life, too). 

A hui hou, 

Dave Fields, APRN, PMHNP