Growing up, Dr. Jennifer Tarbutton always loved taking care of children. With encouragement from her community and mentors, she turned that interest into a career as a pediatrician.
The Mercer University School of Medicine alumna has worked for Children’s Healthcare of Sandersville in Washington County since 2007. Some of the first babies she cared for are now graduating from high school.
“I love watching my patients grow up and hopefully I have made a positive impact for some of them along the way,” she said.
Dr. Tarbutton was born and raised in Perry, and at the suggestion of her high school counselor, she became a candy striper at the Perry Hospital, where she enjoyed taking care of newborns in the nursery. Dr. Phil Mathias, a local OB-GYN, suggested she consider applying for medical school and allowed her to work in his office, where she learned patient skills and took vital signs of patients arriving for appointments.
Dr. Tarbutton attended Emory University, where she completed a Bachelor of Science in biology and kept her sights on medical school. Another mentor from her hometown, Dr. Jim Dawson, urged her to apply for a job working in the operating room at Houston Medical Center in Warner Robins and served as a source of encouragement as she traversed the sometimes overwhelming application process for medical school.
While interviewing at Mercer School of Medicine, Dr. Tarbutton recognized that its mission aligned with her own.
“I loved the faculty members that I met during the interview process, and I was intrigued by the problem-based learning concept,” she said. “I now know that Mercer equipped me with a wonderful education and the skills that I need to be a competent and caring physician. Mercer understands rural Georgia and is committed to training physicians to be well prepared to practice in rural areas.”
She spent her third and fourth years on the School of Medicine’s Savannah campus, where she especially enjoyed her pediatric rotations. Dr. Natalie Hogan, Dr. Martin Greenburg and Dr. Doris Greenburg were exceptional role models who helped Dr. Tarbutton solidify her decision to apply to a pediatric residency program.
“Along the way, I continued to be drawn to taking care of children,” she said. “I love interacting with babies and children. I am fascinated by child development. I believe that it is easier to influence healthy habits in the early years. As I became a parent myself, I grew to love educating other parents about best practices in pediatric medicine, and I feel that my pediatric colleagues are an amazing group of co-workers.”
Dr. Tarbutton completed her pediatric residency at Emory working at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and spent an additional year there as a chief resident. In 2005, she entered private practice at Dekalb Pediatric Center. Two years later, she married her husband, Benjie, and they moved to his hometown of Sandersville. The couple now has three children, ages 16, 14 and 11.
Dr. Tarbutton has practiced in Sandersville for 18 years, and after “working in the trenches” of rural medicine, she said she is thankful for the strong foundation that Mercer School of Medicine and her pediatric residency experience gave her. As a rural physician, she continues to use many of the skills that she learned in residency because it may take longer for her patients to see a pediatric specialist, and sometimes there are barriers to getting specialist appointments, such as transportation and insurance issues. Dr. Tarbutton said she is also grateful for strong relationships with wonderful pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists in Savannah, Atlanta, Macon and Augusta whom she can call on for advice and consultations.
“As a small-town physician, I have the opportunity to know many of my patients outside of the clinical setting,” she said. “We may cross paths in church, at my children’s school or sports events and even in the grocery store. I believe that as you get to know your patients and their families across multiple settings, you can provide better care and understand them as a whole person.”
Dr. Tarbutton now serves as a teaching physician for Mercer School of Medicine, which allows medical students who may be interested in pediatrics to rotate through her office. In this role, she hopes that she can “be inspiring to someone behind me like so many in the past have been for me.”
Dr. Jennifer Tarbutton is among the Mercerians featured in Mercer Illustrated: The Places, People, and Experiences of a Uniquely Impactful University. This coffee table book from Mercer University Press can be ordered online. Mercer faculty, staff and students can receive a 40% discount when they order by phone at (478) 301-2880.
