Hometown Medical Clinic expands its services

KateLynn Slaamot
NLJ Correspondent
 
Hometown Medical Clinic has recently seen some exciting growth and changes since it opened in September 2019. Ashley Tupper, owner and nurse practitioner, wanted to offer a small community clinic while also offering services that could be found in a big city. Her desire to offer urgent care services led her to hire another nurse practitioner. 
While Tupper has been offering family practice services, as well as occupational health such as Department of Transportation physicals, pre-employment checkups
and more, she knew that the
addition of an urgent care service would be of great value to the community, she said. Tupper took on Marty Wilson as a full-time urgent care nurse practitioner on May 4. The urgent care service had its start on that date as well. 
The clinic offers its new service Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon. Tupper is primarily in charge of family practice and follow-ups but shares some of the urgent care responsibilities with Wilson, whose primary job is in urgent care. Wilson has had a great deal of experience working at a busy urgent care clinic in Casper. 
Wilson said that she wasn’t looking for a job, but a friend sent her the job listing, and she decided to send her resumé in. This led to speaking with Tupper, she said, and it seemed like the right fit. 
“I really like her (Tupper’s) philosophy,” Wilson said. “I just wanted to be a part of that.”
Tupper said that she is excited to be working with someone who has a passion for urgent care and already knows the community. Wilson is a native of Newcastle and graduated from Newcastle High School before relocating to Casper. Tupper said that they’ve already developed a smooth workflow, and their business has increased. 
“We’re proud to be able to offer the urgent care services,” Tupper said. 
Tupper and Wilson are a well-balanced team, and they both have medical backgrounds that started fairly early on in their lives. 
Wilson started working as a certified nursing assistant, or CNA, at the Weston County Manor when she was 19. After a short time working there, she said, she already knew that she wanted to be a nurse. Wilson ended up working as a CNA for 11 years, a few of those years were in Casper after moving there in 1997. 
In January of 2000, Wilson started classes at Casper College, graduating in 2002 as a registered nurse. Although she always had a future
as a nurse practitioner in mind, she didn’t want to put any strain on her four children by going to school again, so she worked as an RN for about 15 years. 
Wilson was then accepted to Walden University in Minnesota. Through that school, she got her bachelor’s degree in nursing, then her master’s and then went through the Family Nurse Practitioner Program, graduating with honors in November of 2017. 
The experience of being a nurse first is an advantage that nurse practitioners have, Wilson said. She has a holistic approach to medicine, she said, and her aim is to bring healing in whatever way she can, to the best of her ability. 
Tupper was practically born into the medical field, she said. Both her parents worked in the field, and her dad brought her to classes he taught at a local college and had her practice CPR on her stuffed animals at the age of 5. At 11, she was demonstrating to her father’s students how to intubate on a manikin. 
“It (medical field) was just always something I wanted to be a part of,” Tupper said. 
Tupper received her bachelor’s in nursing from Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, graduating top of her class in 2010. After receiving her master’s, she then went straight into the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, working throughout her schooling and in the summers as an RN. She graduated with her degree in 2012, again top of her class. 
“We couldn’t ask for a better community or place to live,” Tupper said. Tupper has lived in Newcastle for almost five years, she said. Both she and her husband were from the same small town and attended the University of Michigan together, and they lived in Ann Arbor for a while. Because she had always dreamed of moving back to a small town, Tupper said, her parents moving to Newcastle was the perfect reason to join them. 
Tupper’s passion has always been in rural medicine, she said, and the close-knit care that one can receive through it. She wants to offer the best services to her patients and go above and beyond to take care of them. 
“That’s what I set out to do. I am living my mission,” Tupper said.