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The 2020-2021 Florence County Medical Society & Alliance Scholarship recipient is Denise Wiggins, a Junior nursing student at Francis Marion University. She is scheduled to graduate in December, 2021.

When asked why she decided on Nursing, Denise stated that when she was younger, she helped take care of her “Nana and Pa”. Her desire to be a patient advocate and to be part of a team that assists patients with their recovery process grew from the assistance she gave her grandparents. Denise plans are to stay in Florence for a few years after she graduates, working for a local hospital to gain experience as a nurse. She then would like to travel, her passion, around the country and the world.

This scholarship is awarded to a full- time junior or senior student enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts Nursing program or a pre-medical student at Francis Marion University. The recipient must be a resident of Florence County and maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher. If you are interested in giving a tax-deductible donation to this scholarship program, please email fcmsalliancesecretary@gmail.com

Photo: Thank you note from 2020 Scholarship recipient.

Although membership in the SCMA has continued to decline, especially in the last ten years, the number of physicians in South Carolina has increased relative to the population. 1 These trends are troubling, especially as the lack of support from other physicians is linked to physician burnout, which is – at it’s core – emotional exhaustion, and has a strong bidirectional dose-response relationship with medical errors. Burnout is also a leading reason for physicians to leave a health care organization, resulting in the need for recruitment and training of a new physician.

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Help 4 Kids Florence is a nonprofit organization that feeds elementary school age children in need in Florence County.  They provide meals for children on the weekends during the school-year.

Florence county medical alliance members volunteer at the Florence Help 4 Kids once a month and this year along with the medical society (photo) donated $5,000 to them.

Fore more information about the Help 4 Kids, please click this link.

Photo: Dr. Palmer Kirkpatrick from the Medical Society, Sue Jona and Ron Jaggers from the Medical Alliance giving the $5,000 check to Help 4 Kids.

Now that there are authorized and recommended vaccines to prevent COVID-19 in the United States, here are things you need to know about the new COVID-19 Vaccination Program and COVID-19 vaccines.The safety of COVID-19 vaccines is a top priority.

The U.S. vaccine safety system ensures that all vaccines are as safe as possible. Learn how federal partners are working together to ensure the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

CDC has developed a new tool, v-safe, as an additional layer of safety monitoring to increase our ability to rapidly detect any safety issues with COVID-19 vaccines. V-safe is a new smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccines are one of many important tools to help us stop this pandemic.

It’s important for everyone to continue using all the tools available to help stop this pandemic as we learn more about how COVID-19 vaccines work in real-world conditions. Cover your mouth and nose with a mask when around others, stay at least 6 feet away from others, avoid crowds, and wash your hands often.

Here are other things to know about the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program.

CDC will continue to update this website as vaccine recommendations and supply change.

Photo: Dr. Daniel Hyler taking COVID - 19 vaccination.

“Will Your Anchor Hold?” and “Anchors, Aweigh” are famous lines that can apply to the new Anchor Lane, a townhouse project in Florence.

The first is the title of a hymn by Priscilla Jane Owens and William J. Kirkpatrick written in 1882, The words were inspired by the Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 6, Verse 19: "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. ...” (Wikipedia). The second song, by Charles Zimmermann, was written in 1906 for the U.S. Naval Academy, now the official U.S. Navy song.

Groundbreaking for Anchor Lane in Florence was held on Aug. 1, 2018. Sixteen units are now home for individuals with mental illness, stable and under medical care, who are independent but in need of personal case management.

The first tenants began moving into the attractive town house project in the first week of December 2019. And so culminated a five-year effort spearheaded by Shirley Imbeau and S.C. Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. from Florence with the able assistance of Joy Jay of Mental Health America of South Carolina, Columbia, and others.

To read the full article, please click here.