“Hope’s a great community,” Owens said. “When I was in school for my nurse practitioner [certification,] I did rotations at their [Christus Health’s] old spot … so I got to know the town a little bit then and not only the community we take care of but also those that we work with.”
Owens counts himself lucky to be able to continue working with friends he has made while working for Christus Health: “For years I was working at as a nurse practitioner at St. Michael's. And then the opportunity came available to work here with Dr. [William] Bennett and [Advanced Nurse Nurse Practitioner] Devin [Shepard], who I've known for years … it's been a great move.”
If Owens can be said to have a specialty, it’s emergency medicine as he worked in an emergency department for three years. He comes to us from Syracuse, New York, having attained a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Colgate University. Later he found himself in Colorado, working on ski patrol and attending the Denver College of Nursing, where he met his wife, a Texarkana, Arkansas native. He next got a Master of Science in Nursing, with Family Nurse Practitioner certification, from Loyola University in New Orleans. They moved to Texarkana in 2015.
Owens is married with two daughters. He said it was having kids that made the couple want to move to Texarkana to be closer to his wife’s family. His hobbies include working on his wife’s family’s ranch near Texarkana and another pursuit that is easy to do in the Natural State. “I like to fly fish. That's probably my main thing. But any kind of fishing is fun to me.”
Asked about health concerns he sees most often in Southwest Arkansas, Owens said, “We see a lot of diabetes, high blood pressure, but I think that's family practice bread and butter across the United States.”
Owens could not help talking about the uniqueness of Christus Trinity Clinic, which is the rapport its staff enjoys with patients. “We've got a great staff, from the people you see when you walk in at the front desk who get your registered and get you checked in to our nursing staff to the providers—everyone truly cares for the patients here and wants to see them live healthy and happy lives.”