LILLINGTON, North Carolina – Harnett Health welcomed the inaugural cohort of resident physicians to Harnett Health’s Campbell University affiliate residency program last month and hosted a public celebration today at Central Harnett Hospital in Lillington.
Campbell administrators, faculty, and students gathered with Harnett Health leadership and staff as well as community officials and supporters to present the residents with their long white coats and celebrate the next milestone in the partnership announced in January 2014. Fifteen resident physicians will complete their medical training at Harnett Health in the medical education partnership with Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine:
- Internal Medicine – Felix Ajuonuma, DO; Yamama Hafeez, DO; Briana Mayhew, DO; Caleb Richards, DO; Timothy Stuart, DO.
- Family Medicine – Amy-Jo Bekong, DO; and Megan Hubbard, DO.
- Traditional Rotating Internship – Lindsey Carswell, DO; Celia Chao, DO; Michelle Knosp, DO; Brandon Money, DO; Evelyn Patrick, DO; Peggy Robinson, DO; Carli Thomas, DO; and Jordan Vorrie, DO.
Dr. Michelle Langaker, Director of Medical Education for Harnett Health, Traditional Rotating Internship Director, and OB/GYN Chair at Campbell, thanked Dr. Christopher Stewart and Dr. Charlotte Paolini, Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residency directors respectively, for joining her in leading the residents through the next steps in their medical education at Harnett Health.
“Ephesians 3:18 speaks of knowing the width and length and depth and height of Christ love; my prayer for each of you is that you will know the width, length and depth of your impact on the healthcare of our community,” said Dr. Langaker.
Family Medicine Resident, Megan Hubbard was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina when her father, a marine, was stationed at Camp Lejeune. She grew up in Clayton, graduated from UNCW, and went to medical school at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Now, she is one of the inaugural family medicine residents at Harnett Health fulfilling the mission of the Harnett Health and Campbell University partnership.
“It’s great to be back in NC,” said Dr. Hubbard. “God has a plan…in my third year of medical school when I was on my Family Medicine rotations, it just clicked. You get to see a little bit of everything – infant to geriatric adults, and Harnett Health already feels like family.”
A National Health Service Corps Scholar, Dr. Hubbard appreciates the need for healthcare in rural and underserved communities. She sees the opportunity for mind, body, spirit care in underserved areas and plans to stay in practice in Dunn after she completes residency.
“I felt I was being called into primary care and there is a great sense of fulfillment in practicing in rural communities because there is a need. I enjoy the relationships we build with our patients – we really know them and can empathize with them which enables us to better care for their emotional as well as their physical health.”
The residents join medical students training with Harnett Health who have spent the past two years studying at Campbell University’s medical school in Buies Creek. They will spend the next two years learning hands-on medicine alongside Harnett Health’s physician medical staff that now includes residents. Harnett Health is in Region 3 – one of 5 Regional Campuses established across North Carolina where Campbell has training partnerships with community hospitals and clinics for medical students and residents.
“This is another momentous occasion that began with the vision of Dr. Jerry Wallace in 2011,” said Dr. John M. Kauffman, Jr., dean of the medical school. “Last year, we gathered to celebrate the first medical students on rotation at Harnett Health, today we celebrate these 15 residents, and three years from now, we will be gathered to celebrate their graduation from residency. Together, Harnett Health and Campbell University are changing healthcare in our community.”