Amren Hartleigh Pursues Doctor Goal Through Novant Internship

For someone who wants to become a doctor, Novant Health — which has 850 locations throughout North Carolina and South Carolina, including more than 700 physician clinics and urgent care centers — is a perfect place for an internship.

Amren Hartleigh ’27 figured this out early. A Health Science major at Johnson & Wales University’s Charlotte Campus who plans on attending medical school after JWU, Hartleigh secured a job as a patient transporter in April 2025. After sitting down with his advisor and supervisor about how to better connect his academic pursuits with his passion for healthcare, he shifted into a JWU internship in January 2026, and he shares how that’s going.

What It’s Like Interning at Novant Health

The majority of Hartleigh’s day-to-day job consists of transporting patients, exposing him to many people in many stages of care. “We’ll meet and transport patients from ERs and waiting rooms or from individual floors and units,” he explains. “We do everything from discharges to bringing patients to tests such as MRIs and CT scans, or to surgical sites where they get prepped for operations.”

He carries an iPhone-like device to track each patient’s name, information, pickup location and destination, and he connects with dispatchers at another location. “It’s a lot of lower-level management,” he explains. “I’m not quite a supervisor or team lead, but I get a lot of opportunities to see how stuff works behind the scenes. I used to be 100% on the floor, but in my internship I have more exposure to other environments. I like it because I’m seeing more of how we set up transport and what really makes it flow.”

Because Novant has so many facilities, the job is extremely physical. “I walk ten miles every time I’m on shift,” Hartleigh reveals. “My main hospital, Presbyterian Medical Center, is the biggest Novant facility in the Charlotte region; each of the eight floors has at least three units. We also work with Charlotte Orthopedic Hospital, which is connected by a bridge over the street and has another 200-300 patients at a time.”

Although his main focus is interacting with patients, where he sees them at every age and stage of health, Hartleigh also works with blood banks and pathology labs. “I go across the other street to the cancer institute whenever anyone needs radiation or oncology work,” he explains. “Sometimes I collect blood samples from the Hemby Children’s Hospital, where kids go for outpatient treatment. All in all, that covers a four-block area.”

Collaborating with Novant’s Healthcare Team

Hartleigh has enjoyed working with his team since beginning the job last spring. “All my managers are super cool and helpful,” he shares. “We recently brought on a new manager last week because one went to a different Novant hospital and she’s been great at filling out the role. I love the whole team, they’re great.”

Why that matters: “You really do have to work as one unit and need to know what you’re doing,” Hartleigh explains. “We assist the clinical staff with things they’d otherwise be preoccupied with so they can focus on people. Providing nurses in particular with support gives us a chance to help them have one less patient. They feel better when we move more efficiently.”

He appreciates his supervisors’ management style as well. “If anything goes wrong, the managers don’t try to shift blame on us but instead try to see what happened and see what can be done to prevent it,” he shares. “Overall, it’s a really healthy work environment, and we all get along well.”

It’s clear that his colleagues appreciate Hartleigh as well, as he was the recipient of Novant’s Support, Personify, Acknowledge & anticipate, Remain reliable, and Kindle positive experiences (SPARK) award for his willingness to help outside of his duties, such as guiding lost visitors through large medical facilities. “I also got recognized by our Emergency Department CT staff for being so quick to jump in and help them with their patient flow whenever it gets really busy,” the modest intern confesses when prodded.

Why JWU?

Hartleigh transferred to JWU after beginning his studies at a Colorado university that didn’t feel like a good fit. “My girlfriend studies in Charlotte and suggested I come out here,” he says. “I gave it a shot and applied to several local universities, and JWU was the most affordable. The transfer scholarship was even better than the scholarship I had at my prior university; it was a no-brainer to take it.”

He adds, “I didn’t know about JWU’s reputation as a culinary and business school until I got here. I like that they have so many other majors. JWU’s been treating me well. I like all my classes and my professors.”

Originally a Psychology major, Hartleigh switched to Health Science after a biology professor helped him realize he could handle a STEM-heavy major. “She reassured me that there are plenty of physicians, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who struggled a bit in school, but it didn't stop them from pursuing what they felt was right for their life,” he shares. “It really helped me get into the mindset of ‘you can do anything you set your mind to,’ and I've just been chugging along through my courses since then, knowing that even medical professionals are still human and were once students just like me and my classmates at JWU.”

What Skills Serve Hartleigh at Novant

“Time management is a huge skill at my internship,” Hartleigh notes. “We work with critical patients sometimes, but even with those who aren’t critical, we have to move fast. You have to make sure you know the hospital and can plot out the best route, like which elevators to take.”

“Communication is also crucial,” he continues. “I have to communicate effectively with test sites to see if there’s a long line; if so, we can take an opportunity to move other patients along in our system. Or if a patient is on a certain medicine we’d need to know about in advance, we connect with the nurses about their care while adhering to HIPAA regulations about privacy. And I’ve used programs like Excel for JWU courses; you need similar technical knowledge for creating schedules and running the board at Novant. You have to learn quickly how to work the system.”

“My biggest focus is to get familiar with all the systems and make sure there are no hiccups,” he adds. “I had familiarity with Novant from already working there and using EPIC to track patients; it’s a big system at hospitals. You have to be efficient at tracking how many tasks someone has done in the day and with which patients.”

Tying Working at Novant to a Future Career

When he's not at his internship, performing music or playing sports with friends, Hartleigh and his girlfriend enjoy exploring North Carolina’s offerings, from attending shows at Blumenthal Theater to camping in the Great Smoky Mountains. But he’s very excited for his future career as a doctor.

“I’ve thought about so many avenues,” he notes. “But my experience with Novant has shown me that I really like the Emergency Department (ED). I’d like to be an ER doctor or trauma surgeon; I like the fast pace of everything.”

In the meantime, he plans to stay at Novant even after his Spring internship ends. “I recently got a position within transport to solely stay within the ED and help them alleviate the traffic because it gets crazy sometimes,” he adds. “I like moving and getting stuff done. It feels cool to think on your feet, and I’m drawn to the different specialties.”

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