Kelsee Brady, managing editor
Lauren Wehunt has recently accepted the Health Center director position at Berry College. Dean of Students Lindsey Taylor announced Wehunt’s hire on Dec. 14, 2021 via email and Wehunt began the position on Dec. 20, 2021.
New to the Berry community, Wehunt has a doctorate in nursing practice and is a family nurse practitioner. According to Taylor’s email, Wehunt has over 10 years of healthcare experience and most recently worked at Harbin Clinic Family Practice.
Once Taylor learned of previous director Emma Cordle’s intent to resign, the hiring process began. According to Taylor, it involved drafting a job description and posting it to multiple hiring websites.
Taylor said that there was not a large amount of applicants for the position, but the applicants were very qualified. Wehunt was chosen for her credentials and previous experience both in nursing and education.
“At the end of the day, we felt like Lauren just brought a complete package that could serve the students very well,” Taylor said.
Wehunt’s prior experience includes work in a nursing home setting, family practice and in urgent care. All of these have allowed Wehunt to feel confident in fulfilling the expectations that come with the director position at the Health Center.
“I worked at the beginning in a nursing home setting with skilled nursing and long-term care,” Wehunt said. “I feel that prepared me to work independently in a clinic setting, that prepared me for this type of position where I am the sole provider that prescribes the medications and such when I’m here. I also have worked in an urgent care setting, that prepared me as far as when students come in for sick visits, and then I recently worked in family practice which I feel prepared me for students that may need medication adjustments or discuss starting medication for anxiety or depression. I feel like it also prepared me for routine preventative services if needed.”
Wehunt is excited to work with the student population at Berry both as patients and alongside nursing students gaining experience. The Health Center at berry is unique in that it provides an opportunity to educate the students working there. According to Wehunt, she is most excited about being able to educate these students in particular before they begin their careers as nurses.
Assistant Director of the Health Center and registered nurse, Melanie Merrin said that Wehunt brings an eagerness to the position and immediately jumped into the work.
“[Wehunt] really seems like she is bought into the Berry way and culture so we’re excited to have her,” Merrin said.
During the transition period from Cordle to Wehunt, the Health Center did not have a full-time nurse practitioner for students to make an appointment with. Cordle returned to the Health Center on a contract basis to help out with the appointment load, according to Taylor.
Nurse practitioners provide the Health Center with the ability to refill routine medications and conduct physicals and women’s health appointments without a doctor being present. While the Health Center does have a medical doctor, Dr. James Douglas, who visits, he is unable to work full-time on campus so appointments were severely limited and the demand was high for those appointments. Now that Wehunt has joined the Health Center, these services are now available more regularly.
“We hope to bring more awareness of the Health Center and the services that we provide,” Wehunt said. “I know with Covid, everything is super different than it probably has been in the past, but, we are here.”