Faculty member at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine inducted into Health Care Hall of Fame
LEWISBURG, WV (WVNS) — A West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine faculty member was recognized in the Health Care Hall of Fame.
Jill Cochran, Ph.D., spent much of her long career as a nurse helping the community, and was inducted into the West Virginia Executive magazine’s Health Care Hall of Fame in 2024.
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Cochran and nine other health care professionals in the state who were 2024 Hall of Fame recipients attended an awards event in Charleston, West Virginia on February 27, 2024.
I feel honored and privileged to be thought of, let alone be a recipient of this award. At my age, and having 40-something years’ experience in health care, this is probably one of the coolest things I’ve received. Especially being a nurse, because sometimes our work is not recognized since there are so many layers above and below us. To be picked from those layers is validating that your career has been worthwhile.
Jill Cochran, Ph.D | West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine faculty member
Cochran’s career started in the late 1970s working with newborns and their mothers, and the most recent place she worked was in the Rainelle Medical Center emergency department and as a family nurse practitioner at the Robert C. Byrd Clinic from 1999 to 2021.
She has been an associate professor of clinical sciences at WVSOM since 2010 teaching pediatrics, although her experience reaches beyond clinics and health care facilities.
MBS Program – WVSOM Jill Cochran – Photo Courtesy: WVSOM 2024 WV Exec Health Care Hall of Fame – WVSOM Jill Cochran with President James Nemitz – Photo Courtesy: WVSOM
I have built my community from the office. People see me at Walmart and ask me a medical question and I give them an answer. I am who I am no matter if I’m with my kids or someone else. If patients recognize me and need something related to health care, I’m going to help them. Community members expect me to be there for them and to stand for what I said in the office… These people trust what I’m telling them, and that can be an overwhelming feeling, but that’s what drives me. The community comes to you for answers
Jill Cochran, Ph.D | West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine faculty member
Cochran is also involved in translational research projects that focus on childhood obesity, diabetes, health care needs of children, and care of children in rural Appalachia. During her time as a faculty member at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, she handled clinically based research through the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, as well as teaching students how to observe trends when they are caring for patients.
Other schools may do basic science or bench research, but WVSOM excels in translational research. These projects may not make the journals, but they impact people. Our translational research faculty may not be finding a cure for cancer, but they can understand how we can better work with patients with fussy babies, lack of resources or over-the-counter medicine management. Thanks to translational grants, health care professionals can look out of the box or out of the exam room to connect the dots within community-based research. It’s research from the bottom up.
Jill Cochran, Ph.D | West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine faculty member
Cochran’s research helped add programs such as the Robert C. Byrd Clinic’s “telesoothe” program in early 2020. While the program started with in-person visits that showed swaddling to family members using an infant simulator, COVID-19 meant that the program had to be offered through telehealth since parents could not visit clinics or have the necessary contact with other people to help.
The Hall of Fame award winners stories can be found in the Winter 2024 edition of the West Virginia Executive magazine, and 2024 is the fifth year that the magazine has recognized health care professionals, with a WVSOM administrator or alumni being acknowledged each year.
People who have positively influenced the state through developing devices to help with medical treatment, leading efforts to treat underserved populations, creating a unique business to meet a need, finding new ways to address West Virginia’s health issues, or being a trailblazer in the profession are acknowledged by the Health Care Hall of Fame.
Those who are inducted can include those who work behind the scenes like volunteers, researchers, and entrepreneurs, or they can be on the front lines like doctors and nurses.
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