Nurse practitioner Marianne Parham remembers her hardest job was her first.

Straight out of high school, she joined the U.S. Army as a medic. That was more than 30 years ago.

The prospect of basic training was intimidating. But once there, she excelled.

“At first I thought, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this,” Parham recalled. “I was all pink and lace back then. My dad told me, ‘I just hope you get through it.’”

It turned out that the high expectations, little sleep and physical demands motivated her, Parham said.

“I didn’t know I was that good at pushups,” she said. “It really empowered me knowing I could do something like that. It gave me so much confidence.”

Today, Parham is a board-certified family nurse practitioner at Wound Center of Tucson, where she provides specialized wound care to patients with complex medical needs from diabetes abrasions to bed sores to post-surgical incisions.

After eight years in the Army on active duty and as a reservist, Parham settled in Tucson, where she built a family and steadily advanced her medical training — as a licensed practical nurse, then with a bachelor’s degree from Grand Canyon University and finally with a master’s in nursing from the University of Phoenix, graduating with honors. 

Along the way, Parham applied her skills in family medicine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, pain management and dermatology. 

“I’ve done a little of everything,” she says.

Parham joined Wound Center of Tucson after previously working in operating rooms with Dr. Jeff Monash, an experienced surgeon who now directs the wound center.

Parham said wound care felt like the right fit for the last phase of her career.

“I like the independence, and I like the challenge,” Parham said. “Wounds are tough because there can be a lot of underlying causes — diabetes, stress, weight, hydration.”

When healing finally happens, it’s a shared win, she said. 

“It’s not just me — the patient has to want it,” she said. “They have to eat right. They have to stay off the wound site. They have to do all the follow up. I’m just part of their journey.”

When a wound finally heals, “it’s an accomplishment for both of us.”

And that, she says, is what makes the work worth it.