CHRISTUS Good Shepherd and Wiley University sign clinical affiliation agreement

CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health System and Wiley University signed a clinical affiliation agreement today that will allow Wiley students access to internships across the health system.

“We invited a group from Wiley to the hospital last year to see what areas we could benefit from by partnering,” said Michael Cheek, chief financial officer for CHRISTUS Good Shepherd. “There is a great need for high-quality, non-clinical staff, and this partnership gives us an avenue to fill in some gaps with very talented people.”

The agreement will provide internship opportunities to students in the Wiley University School of Business and Social Sciences and School of Education in areas including but not limited to sociology, organizational management, computer information systems, biology, interdisciplinary studies, and physical education.

Wiley University faculty will provide the educational portion of the internship while CHRISTUS Good Shepherd provides the environment and facilities for students to acquire practical clinical experience.

“I am a huge advocate for partnering with our community members, no institution survives alone, working in a silo, without collaboration within the community,” said Dr. JoAnn Scales, vice president of academic affairs and strategic retention at Wiley University. “For us, this greatly expands the opportunities we can offer our students, and doing so with a great organization like CHRISTUS, it is a win-win.”

Internships will take place at both CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Medical Center – Marshall and CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Medical Center – Longview. Students who qualify for the internship will receive hands-on experience throughout their degree program.

The internships are open to any qualifying student at Wiley University and will begin in the Fall 2024 semester.

“This agreement has taken a little while to get here, but it has been worth it,” said Cheek. “A lot of hard work went into this, and we are very excited to work with Wiley and offer some fantastic opportunities to their students.”