Leah Hurst of Dutton has joined the Middle Peninsula Medical Center in Mathews as a nurse practitioner, specializing in both family practice and palliative care. She will be seeing patients on a routine basis and for acute care.

A registered nurse for six years, serving in the intensive care unit at Riverside Regional Medical Center, Hurst has a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and earned her R.N. at the Riverside School of Nursing. She is currently in the final push for her master’s degree in nursing from the University of Southern Alabama, with her boards scheduled for December.

Hurst is a Mathews native. She and her husband, Benjamin Hurst, have two children.

Dr. Christian Wathen said she was pleased to welcome Hurst into the practice, which Wathen established in 2017. She said that, with Hurst on board, the practice will be able to expand the number of patients it serves to around 1,000.

Wathen said her business has grown very quickly, and that she’s appr...