Joplin, MO. – Freeman Health System’s Graduate Medical Education Program draws talented doctors to Joplin for essential training, and more than a few will remain with Freeman to practice medicine.

As a teaching hospital, Freeman provides resident physicians the opportunity to study side by side with some of the most knowledgeable and dedicated physicians in the country. While physicians receive their MD or DO titles after medical school, they can’t do anything with them until they first complete their residencies. This is where the GME program steps in to help, allowing doctors the chance to utilize their skills as residents at Freeman West, Freeman East, or Freeman Neosho.

“Being a teaching hospital creates an environment of continuous learning for not only our trainees, but also our veteran physicians, nurses, and other members of the healthcare team,” said Stephanie Lea, Freeman’s Director of Medical Education.

Freeman offers training in four residency fields: Emergency Medicine; Ear, Nose, and Throat; Family Medicine; and Internal Medicine. Joplin’s single largest employer, Freeman also serves as a key member of the Kansas City University – GME Consortium.

“Our GME programs help build the future of our organization by training high-quality physicians who will hopefully stay with Freeman and the Joplin community long-term,” Lea said. “They also expand the capacity of our current workforce and improve the quality of our patient care.”

Drs. Robert Steele and William Estep are now fully licensed physicians, having graduated earlier this year from their respective GME programs, and both men have chosen to continue their professional medical careers at Freeman Health System.

“I am honored to be joining Freeman, and there is real gratitude behind that,” said Dr. Steele. “This hospital has given me a chance to stay and serve the region that shaped me throughout training. Freeman is not just a hospital in Joplin; it is a system that serves an enormous area, much of it rural, under-resourced, and medically underserved. This is a region where people often lack access to care, and Freeman shows up for them. Many residents do not realize how fortunate this area is to have an institution with such reach and depth.

“I am very happy to be working for Freeman – specifically, I am excited to be working with the community I grew up in and love,” said Joplin native Dr. Estep, son of Freeman’s Dr. Dennis Estep. “I grew up down the street from Freeman (West), where my dad worked.

“I was adamant as a kid that I would leave and wouldn’t work at the same place he did,” he continued, chuckling. “When I moved away for college and later to medical school in different communities, I came to really appreciate the size and scope of Joplin.”

While working as Freeman GME residents, Dr. Steele tackled emergency medicine, while Dr. Estep focused on internal medicine.

Attending the internal medicine program, Dr. Estep said, “I felt supported the whole way. Our attending and support staff all have the interest of our residents as a high priority. Being here, we all were treated like colleagues and important members of the team, rather than a tacked-on afterthought.”

The training itself, Dr. Steele said, is immersive and intense.

“You’re responsible for lives from day one. There’s no theoretical safety net – you act or don’t, and the hardest part is learning when to act, and with what certainty. Attendings, consultants, and nurses give direct feedback exactly when you need it. That unfiltered approach shapes a physician who can stay steady when things go wrong,” he said about his emergency medicine residency. “This is old-school training. There’s no cushion of layered consultants to slow decisions. The feedback is honest. You manage critical patients in real time, shoulder to shoulder with specialists – birth, death, failure, success – all happening in front of you. The emergency department teaches judgment under pressure, not in theory but in practice.

“This program doesn’t just teach medicine,” Dr. Steele continued. “It teaches you how to move with it, how to function inside its pulse.”

Dr. Estep admits that, growing up, he didn’t want to pursue a career in medicine.

“I have a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. I was dead set on working on prosthetic design when I graduated high school,” he said. “During my undergraduate schooling, I enjoyed my anatomy and physiology classes more than my other classes. I started taking extra classes and shadowing doctors to see about that side of things and felt like a chord was struck. So, I tacked on a ‘pre-med’ classification to my degree and started working towards that.” 

After earning his medical degree from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Estep conducted his internal medicine residency at Freeman beginning in 2022.

In a similar vein, Dr. Steele said medicine was not in his early plans when he grew up in Olivia, Minnesota. He gravitated toward medicine during his service as an Infantry Team Leader in the Iowa Army National Guard from 2005 to 2014, which included a deployment to Nuristan, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

“During my deployment, most missions were combat-focused, yet I gravitated to the tiny clinic on base,” Dr. Steele said. “A battalion PA (physician assistant) let me help with wound care and minor procedures. I had no formal training, but it felt right. We had a mass casualty event that really sent me into this path.

“In those moments, I began to realize how much more I needed to know,” he continued. “I didn’t want to just react, I wanted to understand. That desire stayed with me. When I returned home at 24, I had a long path ahead. I had to support my family, build a resume, and work toward something that had grown from a curiosity into a calling. Those early experiences pointed me toward medicine.”

His Freeman training was comparable to “several larger training centers I looked at” before coming to Joplin, Dr. Estep said.

“Here, recently, I was walking into the building and one of our med students was helping a patient into a wheelchair,” he said. “It wasn’t his ‘job,’ but he saw an opportunity to serve, and he took it. It stuck with me because it captures the thought process I love about the community I work with. If you see a need, do what you can about it.”

Added Dr. Steele: “I’m grateful for the training, the people, and the chance to remain here. Not everyone practices where they trained, but this place matters to me. Emergency medicine has its own rhythm, and Freeman taught me how to hear it.”

“They’ve worked extremely hard over the past three years of their residencies,” Lea said of the two men’s accomplishments. “It’s truly a joy to watch them grow and become the amazing physicians they are today.”