When Greg Fillenwarth picked up the Indianapolis paper one day, he joked to family members that he was going to see what jobs were “out there for nurse practitioners.” Scanning the ads, his eyes fell upon a position at the Switzerland County Nurse-Managed Clinic — and something just told him that this was where he was supposed to be.
“I found this job purely by accident,” Greg Fillenwarth said. “I never expected that in a million years that I would leave what I was doing; but as soon as I saw the ad for this position in the paper, I knew that this was what I was supposed to be doing.”
Still, after a comfortable life in Indianapolis, he waited a few days before telling his wife, Cheryl, and his children: son Sean, age 18; and daughter Megan, age 16.
“How do you feel about moving to a place we’ve never heard of?” was how Greg Fillenwarth started the conversation with his wife. As he looks back on that day, he says that his family was very supportive of the move.
Prior to this position, Greg Fillenwarth had been working for the past two years as a nurse practitioner at Hancock Memorial Hospital in Greenfield, Indiana, a hospital that he had worked at for after a stint as a cardiac registered nurse at Community Hospital in Indianapolis. He has been a registered nurse for 16 years, and is very comfortable in the nurse practitioner position.
Originally from Indianapolis, Greg Fillenwarth laughs when he says that he has never lived further than three miles away from his mother until he moved to Vevay on April 15th — but already feels very much at home here in Switzerland County.
“We came down here and I had an interview and we checked out the town,” Greg Fillenwarth said. “Right away I fell in love with the place and knew this was where I was supposed to be. So far everyone has been very welcoming and very helpful.”
He says that Jean Humphries has “taken me under her wing” and introduced him to people around the county; helping him make contacts and learn his way around the county.
“When I first got here, I’d be walking down the street and people would come up and ask me if I was eligible to join the American Legion,” Greg Fillenwarth says. “I’d tell them that I’d never been in the service, but everyone wants me to be a part of something, so it’s nice that the community wants me to be a part of it.”
His first day on the job here at the Nurse-Managed Clinic was April 18th, but he didn’t see his first patient until May 2nd because of filing the proper paperwork and getting everything organized.
The move has also been an adjustment for the Fillenwarth family. Son Sean is a senior at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis, so he’s finishing up his high school career and will then remain in Indianapolis.
Daughter Megan is completing her sophomore year at Warren Central, and her father says that other than the initial shock at the difference in the number of students in Warren Central High School and Switzerland County High School, she’s ready to move to Vevay after completing some summer school classes this summer.
“She likes it here,” her father said. “The only stipulation for me taking this job was that she gets to go back to Indianapolis every now and then to visit her friends, but she was very supportive of the move and encouraged me to do what I wanted to do.”
Greg Fillenwarth said that Megan is involved in marching band and choir at Warren Central; and has been “sniffing out the Hoosier Theater” because of her interest in drama. She is also a member of the swim team in high school, so without a team here in Switzerland County, her swimming will be confined to the YMCA.
“But she’s hoping that maybe a swim team will get started,” Greg Fillenwarth said.
And what other adjustments has Greg Fillenwarth gotten used to?
“If I take my time, it takes me about two minutes to get to work,” he says with a smile. “That’s unusual for a guy from a city. This is the first job that I’ve ever had that I’m able to go home for lunch. I love it here.”
*
The Switzerland County Nurse Managed Clinic is located in the Switzerland County Medical Center on State Road 56 just west of the Switzerland County YMCA. For more information, call the clinic at 427-4038.