Nurse practitioner joins bustling Bethel Health Center
RANDOLPH, Aug. 19, 2008 – Family nurse practitioner Christine Malcolm has joined the Bethel Health Center, filling a need for particularly women’s care at the bustling Route 107 family practice.
Malcolm comes to the Bethel facility, which is part of nonprofit Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, with up-to-date training as a family nurse practitioner and more than a decade of experience in midwifery.
“I came into family practice because I worked as a midwife for many years and I was really interested in extending my care to the entire family,” says Malcolm, who graduated last year from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing with a post master’s degree certificate as a family nurse practitioner.
Since, she’s worked at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Keene, N.H., as nurse practitioner for a free community cancer-screening clinic as well as at Keene State College’s student wellness center.
She previously earned her midwifery certificate from Frontier in 1994 and then went to earn a master of science degree in nursing from Case Western Reserve University. She has bachelor’s degrees in nursing from Columbia University and sociology and women’s studies from the University of California-Santa Cruz.
Malcolm got her start in health care as a registered nurse working in obstetrics in New Jersey, where she grew up. She went on to work as a midwife at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., in a teen obstetrics clinic.
In 1997, she moved to southern Vermont and worked until 2004 at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and also as a school nurse and health teacher. Beginning in 2004, she worked at Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Keene Women’s Health Clinic, and, in 2006, joined the faculty at Southern Vermont College in Bennington for a year. She taught obstetrics and medical/surgical nursing.
Gifford is a hospital with which Malcolm has been familiar for years, she says.
“I’ve known about Gifford since I was having my children. Gifford has a great reputation,” she says. “When I came here, it really felt like I was home.”
Gifford Medical Director Dr. Josh Plavin calls Malcolm an incredibly compassionate health care provider and a terrific fit for the Bethel Health Center.
“Her extensive experience in providing women’s health care both through midwifery and her more recent training as a family nurse practitioner makes her ideally suited to meet the needs of patients at the Bethel Health Center,” Dr. Plavin says.
He adds, “She certainly will complement and partner well with Dr. Terry Cantlin and Dr. Mark Seymour, who are very excited for her to join them.”
Malcolm hopes to provide holistic care to families and even dreams of one day doing home visits.
“I’d like to provide accessible, family-friendly, supportive care,” says the very-likeable Malcolm.
Among Malcolm’s interests are women’s health and pediatrics.
Malcolm, now of Stowe, is married with three children, ages 7-14. She enjoys gardening, knitting, skiing and biking.
She has begun seeing patients in Bethel. Call her at the health center at (802) 234-9913.