New Rural Maternal Child Health Fellowship Program rotation offers unique training opportunity at St. Joseph’s Hospital
A new medical rotation offered at WVU Medicine’s St. Joseph’s Hospital in Buckhannon is helping Rural Maternal Child Health fellows receive advanced obstetrical training in a unique rural setting.
The fellowship program, led by fellowship director Angela Cherry, M.D., and located on the School of Medicine’s Eastern Campus, aims to prepare family medicine physicians for a career in advanced obstetrical newborn care in a rural setting.
“This rotation exemplified what it means to be a rural community provider,” said Rural Maternal Child Health fellow Maziar Shakeri, M.D.
Dr. Shakeri completed his first rotation at St. Joseph’s Hospital during a period of three weeks in February. He explained that fellows rotate at St. Joseph’s for a period of 1-3 weeks where they are able to manage their own patients and perform cesarean sections, while simultaneously being exposed to a learning environment that differs from that of their typical experience at the Eastern Campus.
Dr. Cherry explained that while the Eastern Campus has a variety of locations spread across the Eastern Panhandle counties with numerous providers who are available to help fellows learn valuable family medicine and obstetrics skills, that Buckhannon has just two OB/GYN providers who provide care at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
“This allows our fellows to become involved in more procedures and patient care opportunities, and also further ingrains them within that rural community,” Cherry said.
One of the OB/GYN providers in the area is Kimberly Farry, M.D., who oversees the rotation. Despite the smaller number of available faculty, Dr. Farry said she and her team complete more than 300 deliveries per year, thanks in part to the Rural Maternal Child Health fellows.
“To put it simply, having the fellows here makes our lives easier,” said Dr. Farry. “We trust them to be the primary person on our floor and I’ve been able to observe firsthand how great they are at getting to know our patients.”
Shakeri said he admires how connected Dr. Farry is with her patients and that he tries his best to emulate that level of care with his own patients.
“The way the providers here deliver care really resonated with me, even if it was just something as simple as holding a patient’s hand as the anesthesia took effect,” Shakeri said. “As a physician, whether it’s in a rural or an urban setting, I aspire to have that same relationship with my patients and my community.”
Shakeri added that he also greatly admired the relationships between faculty and staff members at St. Joseph’s Hospital, saying he felt honored to be a part of such a positive work and learning environment.
“The most memorable experience I had at St. Joseph’s was being invited to be a part of a twin delivery for one of the Labor and Delivery staff members,” Shakeri said. “The immense amount of love and compassion that I felt and experienced in that delivery room served as a shining example of how this close-knit rural community thrives.”
To learn more about the Rural Maternal Child Health Fellowship Program, visit medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/eastern/fellowship.