Hwy 308 reopened to traffic
June 28, 2011John Alford Ashley
June 30, 2011
Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center CEO Rhonda Green joked that 100 years from now, the two young men being recognized as the first graduating class of that institution’s internal medicine residency program would probably be referred to by aspiring physicians of that time as “those old coots.”
“I feel like I have two children here and many more to come,” Green said during an informal graduation ceremony and reception last Wednesday in the medical center’s cafeteria.
Instructors, staff and their peers, honored Drs. Kerry Shaver and Sheny Alex as the two new internists completed a three-year residency program.
“Any medical residency and internship is difficult,” Shaver said before the afternoon program began. “I think being one of the first groups through here at Chabert, it was not only difficult, but it was interesting and rewarding. It is a small enough facility that you get to know people. The relationships here are better than they might be at a larger facility.”
Shaver is from Wichita Falls, Texas and intends to remain in the region as he takes up work at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.
Alex was born in Southern India but raised in North Carolina. Upon graduation, he said he intends to travel then take on a job he has lined up in Branson, Mo.
“I’ve been here for four years,” Alex said following a 30-minute ceremony. “It is a tremendous place to train and a great place to learn. I can’t believe it is over and I’m moving on to the next stage in my life.”
Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center began the internal medicine residency program in 2008 under the leadership of Houma internist Dr. Thomas Ferguson. “[He] had a vision of starting a residency training program that would address a looming physician shortage,” Green said. “This program [is] unique, belonging to Leonard J. Chabert [Medical Center] and bearing the Chabert name. Other training programs are associated with a school. Ours is not. It belongs to us.”
The internal medicine residency program is one of only seven approved in the United States during the past 10 years.
Ferguson was the featured speaker for this first graduating class of two. “After [Hurricane] Katrina and after [Hurricane] Gustav there was an exodus of physicians from this region and they are not being replaced at a rate that the community needs,” he said. “The goal of our graduate education program here is to put primary care, internal medicine positions back into our region. That’s our mission.”
Chabert’s educational medical program has eight house officers for a total of 24 in overlapping classes. Each resident has a panel of patients to follow in outpatient clinics. They also gain training in ambulatory work including neurology, dermatology, ophthalmology, ENT, urology, gynecology, geriatrics and adolescent medicine.
Print reminders of where they fulfilled their residency were presented to Drs. Kerry Shaver and Sheny Alex during a graduation reception at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center. Pictured from left are Shaver, Chabert CEO Rhonda Green, Alex and Chabert Medical Director Dr. Michael Garcia. MIKE NIXON
