December 8, 2022
Rebecca Richardson is a family nurse practitioner who cares for patients at University Medical Center in Carrollton, Ala.
Originally from Carrollton, Richardson has spent nearly 40 years in nursing. She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Miss. She received her Master of Science in Nursing degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., and obtained her nurse practitioner certification.
After graduation, she worked in the emergency room at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., before joining Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton in 1983.
“My last job was at the hospital in Pickens County working with the hospitalist group,” Richardson said. “When the hospital closed (in March 2020), I applied to The University of Alabama and worked with the COVID-19 support team for faculty and students. I heard through meetings that a clinic was in the works to open in my hometown. I told them ‘Please, if you do that, consider letting me come back here to work.’ I love this community and the patients. You know the families and the people.”
UA’s College of Community Health Sciences, which operates University Medical Center, also operated the University’s COVID-19 Support Program.
After she was accepted for the nurse practitioner position at UMC-Carrollton, which was scheduled to open in 2021, Richardson worked with faculty and staff at University Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and occasionally accompanied other nurse practitioners to work at UMC-Demopolis. UMC-Carrollton opened in August 2021.
“Once the clinic opened, I came here,” Richardson said. “I’m happy to be here. My family lives close by and I enjoy being able to work and help look after them. Here, we are a small clinic with a small amount of people. It’s a very stable, solid group. It takes a special kind of skill to work in a small community.”
Richardson said her goal is to help UMC-Carrollton grow, and her dream is for Pickens County Medical Center to re-open so that people in Pickens County also have access to emergency care.
