Alumni Spotlight: Drs. Marlie and Nick Campbell

Meet Drs. Marlie Patel Campbell and Nicholas Campbell, Campbell Medicine Alumni Class of 2019.  One of CUSOM’s many love stories, the couple is completing residency at University of Tennessee Chattanooga programs in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine.

Why did you choose your area of medicine?  
Marlie: I chose pediatrics because I love the impact it has on growing and developing families! I absolutely adored my pediatrician and wanted to have the same role in someone else’s life.
Nick: I chose internal medicine because of the underlying physiology – there is so much to learn and understand. I had a great role models at Campbell and this really solidified my choice.

What advice do you have for current/future students?
Study and work hard!  But ultimately, trust the process – while the first two years of medical school can be overwhelming, it is worth it to have a good foundation of knowledge to carry through not only the rotations, but residency as well.

How did Campbell help prepare you for residency and practice?
Campbell gave us a strong knowledge base, not only from a “book” perspective, but rotating with residents taught us how to work and learn as residents when were finally residents.

We had wonderful mentors both in Buies Creek and where we did our rotations; these mentorships have blossomed into life long friendships. There is definitely a family feel to Campbell which drew us there, and we are thankful for our experience there.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted you during residency?
COVID has been a strange time to say the least! As a pediatrics resident, I went from having very few patients last year and not really seeing it to the weird spring/summer we just had where we were seeing winter illnesses and summer belly bugs!

The volume of patients has picked up significantly in 2021, and we have been really busy with year-round illnesses. It has been a tougher transition to manage the volume of patients and acuity of illnesses we have been seeing to helping the new residents “ease” into residency.

Overall it’s been a time of extreme adaptation not only for new docs like us, but everyone in medicine. It has been great to see our faculty and hospital come together for the safety and well being of our patients as well as our medical staff.

What’s next for you?
Marlie: General Pediatrics practice
Nick: Currently applying to cardiology fellowship! So, hopefully fellowship!