1/4/07, Welcome to Anne Bennett

Anne Bennett, a family nurse practitioner with vast and unique experience, has joined the staff at Community Memorial Hospital's Hamilton Family Health Center.

Bennett, who is accepting new patients of all ages -- her former patients are welcome as well – is interested in establishing a practice in Hamilton because of the warm, family feeling she sees at the health center. As a family nurse practitioner she is able to treat a wide variety of cases and perform minor surgeries and procedures. She is also experienced with women's health issues.

Bennett comes to Hamilton most recently from Chenango Memorial Hospital's Sherburne office and walk in clinic.

Before that, she spent six years in Alaska, flying into remote native villages to care for people, from newborns to the elderly, and the full gamut of illnesses and injuries.

"When you are the only health provider for 700 miles, you do it all," says Bennett, who returned to the Lower 48 to care for her parents. In all, she has 16 of experience as a family nurse practitioner and 20 more as a registered nurse, working in emergency rooms, a neurological rehabilitation facility and with an obstetrician and gynecologist.

Bennett, who grew up in Buffalo and Ft. Lauderdale, ran Champion Sheet Metal in Cortland before entering healthcare.

"I can work a punch press and weld," she says.

The mother of two grown children, Bennett also has 17 foster sons, all in their 30s now, who she took in when they were teenagers.

A member of the Mohawk tribe, Bennett enjoys fly fishing, painting and is an herbalist.