Page 134 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2017

ABOVE: COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE STUDENTS
BELOW: COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE students at a demonstration showing how telemedical kits delivered by ambulance drones can provide life- saving assistance in remote or disaster areas.
The availability of medical education
in South Mississippi
is increasing, thanks
in large part to the efforts of William Carey University. With campuses in Hattiesburg and Biloxi, the private four-year university has stepped up to fill a need. On the Biloxi Tradition Campus, there is a nursing school and ground was broken last month for the pharmacy school. There is a College of Osteopathic Medicine, a Doctor
of Physical Therapy program, and
a nursing school on the Hattiesburg Campus. Additionally, the National Diabetes and Obesity Research Center — while not a WCU initiative — is located on the Tradition Campus and the university is a supporting partner.
“Through the years William Carey has looked for unmet needs and niches no one else is filling,” University President Tommy King said. “We can’t compete with large public schools, but we can provide education to fill unmet needs.”
An example of that approach is the music therapy program that William Carey began 30 years ago because
no other area school was doing it. Another is WCU’s stand-alone nursing program. “Nursing schools used to be in hospitals; now they must be a part of a university that grants degrees,” King said. “Southern Baptist Hospital in New Orleans came to us 25 years ago with a nursing school proposal
134 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • June 2017
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HEALTH CARE