Nurse practitioner program planned by Wright Center

The Wright Center for Community Health is introducing a 12-month nurse practitioner postgraduate fellowship program in family medicine that provides hands-on clinical training experience for newly minted nurse practitioners.

Joshua Braddell

Nurse practitioners who have licenses and are entering their first year of practice can apply to the program in January. The paid fellowship begins in September. The Wright Center is accepting a limited number of applicants for the first fellowship program in the region. To make an application, email twc-np-fellowship@thewrightcenter.org.

“The focus of our fellowship is to provide nurse practitioners who want to remain in family practice with the experience they need to provide high-quality primary and preventive care to the communities we serve in Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Joshua Braddell, DNP, CRNP, FNP-C, director of the fellowship program and medical director of The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley Practice. Kelly Morgan, MHA, has been named program coordinator for the fellowship program. 

The nurse practitioners chosen for the fellowship will receive increased clinical exposure during the first year of their practice. The fellowship will help advanced practice nurses develop leadership skills through weekly didactic sessions and specialty clinic experiences.

The Wright Center for Community Health is an essential community provider that offers nondiscriminatory, comprehensive, culturally competent, affordable, high-quality primary health services for all people, regardless of their income level, insurance status, or ZIP code. The Wright Center for Community Health follows the Patient-Centered Medical Home Model and participates in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program that addresses America’s primary care workforce shortage, misdistribution, and related health disparities.

The new fellowship provides experience in pediatrics, mental and behavioral health, infectious disease, and addiction treatment and recovery services at The Wright Center for Community Health’s Clarks Summit, Mid Valley, and Scranton practices. 

The Wright Center for Community Health’s primary care fellowship is the fourth in the state, with programs available in Philadelphia, Erie, and Lancaster. The Wright Center follows the model established in 2007 by Community Health Center, Inc., of Connecticut, a pioneer in formal postgraduate training programs for family nurse practitioners.

For more information about The Wright Center for Community Health, call 570-230-0019 or go to TheWrightCenter.org.

Wright Center’s North Scranton practice names new director

Experienced family nurse practitioner Maura Longstreet, MSN, CRNP, FNP-BC, has been named the medical director of The Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton Practice, 1721 N. Main St. – the newest location in the network of primary and preventive care clinics in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Longstreet joined The Wright Center in 2019. As medical director, she provides clinical oversight and direction for the practice, which offers primary care, behavioral and mental health, and addiction and recovery services, including Medication-Assisted Treatment. 

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Misericordia University and a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Scranton. Before joining The Wright Center, Longstreet worked as an intensive care and trauma/neurology nurse at Geisinger Community Medical Center.

As a student, Longstreet also participated in a medical mission trip to Guyana, South America, where she set up a primary care clinic and performed screenings. She has also volunteered at the University of Scranton’s Leahy Clinic, which provides free, non-emergency health care to uninsured residents of Lackawanna County. 

For more information about The Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton Practice, visit TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019. 

Mobile mammogram screenings in Lackawanna Co.

The Wright Center for Community Health is collaborating with Lackawanna Mobile X-Ray, Inc., to offer convenient mobile digital mammogram screenings at two locations in Lackawanna County.

Christen Marante

The 15-minute appointments are available aboard a mobile unit at The Wright Center for Community Health Scranton Practice parking lot, 501 S. Washington Ave., from 9 a.m. to noon on July 12, Aug. 9, Sept. 6, Oct. 11, Nov. 8, and Dec. 6. The Mid Valley Practice parking lot, 5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn, is offering the specialty service from 1:30-4:45 p.m. on July 12, Aug. 9, Sept. 6, Oct. 11, Nov. 8, and Dec. 6.

To reserve an appointment, contact Christen Marante, BSN, RN, associate vice president, Value-Based Performance Program, The Wright Center, at 570-591-5225 or marantec@TheWrightCenter.org. Participants are asked to bring insurance cards to their appointment. 

“The Wright Center is proud to be able to partner with a longtime community provider of mobile diagnostics services to make life-saving mammograms more accessible to the communities we serve in the region,” said Marante. “Mammograms remain the most effective screening tool used by health care providers to find breast cancer in most women.”

Lackawanna Mobile X-Ray, Inc., is the Mid-Atlantic region’s most experienced, full-service mobile diagnostics services provider. For more than 35 years, its highly trained specialists have been providing a wide range of mobile medical services on-site, including X-rays, EKG exams, ultrasounds, vascular studies, mammograms, and Holter monitors.

A Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike, The Wright Center for Community Health’s patient-centered medical home is an essential community provider of safety-net primary and preventive health services, a state-designated Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence, and a Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinic. The Wright Center for Community Health’s nine locations in Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne counties include a mobile medical and dental unit called Driving Better Health that together serve more than 40,000 unique patients annually and ensures everyone in the service area has access to integrated, affordable, high-quality health services regardless of their insurance status, ZIP code, or ability to pay.

For more information about The Wright Center for Community Health, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.