An Amazing Path to Follow

An Amazing Path to Follow

Deborah McLanahan and Kayla Lapp wore navy blue nursing scrubs as they made their way through the Gambet Center in late June.

The mother-daughter duo had just finished teaching a nearly six-hour dermatology clinic for students in the Family/Across the Lifespan Nurse Practitioner program.

Campus is familiar territory for the two: McLanahan graduated from DeSales' very first FNP class in 2000, while Lapp, her daughter, just recently received her FNP degree in May.

"DeSales has come so far from when I started here. We did our lab in a closed room in an old building. We didn't have mannequins or SIM labs. The facilities they have now are just incredible."

Deborah McLanahan M'00

Both women have a deep passion for the NP profession, and Lapp has closely followed in her mother's footsteps. Both received their undergraduate nursing degree from Gwynedd Mercy University, and both felt the pull to become a nurse practitioner.

"I love the autonomy of the position and the increased responsibility," says Lapp. "As a nurse, you're following plans. As an NP, you're making plans that others follow."

Adds McLanahan: "As NPs, we are diagnosing and treating. It's a role similar to the physician, but it's not the same pressure as the MD level. It's a great place to be in the healthcare profession."

McLanahan's first introduction to the NP position came during her undergraduate days. The nursing program at Gwynedd Mercy brought in different speakers to highlight all the avenues available with a nursing degree. When a nurse practitioner described her role, something clicked for McLanahan.

After earning her FNP, she practiced family medicine for more than a decade before pursuing a specialty in dermatology. She loves the hands-on aspect of the field and the relationships she's developed with her patients over the years at Dermatology & Mohs Surgery Center in Bucks County.

"It's really about the patients," McLanahan says. "I absolutely love taking care of people. In out-patient, you get to know your patients and they build trust in you. You can cry with them, you can hug them, or you can encourage them when you need to."

When it came time for Lapp to choose an FNP program, she decided on DeSales for three main reasons: its reputation, her mother's experience in the program, and the close connections her mother has forged here-specifically with Laura Baylor, DNP, director of the FNP program, and Carol Gullo Mest, Ph.D., chair of graduate nursing programs.

Lapp has worked at the same practice as her mother for the past seven years, first as a medical assistant, then nurse, and now NP. Her focus has been primarily on surgery, but moving forward, she and McLanahan will be working side by side in the same office.

"She has set such an amazing example for me-in who she is as a mother, a friend, and a healthcare provider," says Lapp. "It's an amazing path to follow."

While Lapp also loves helping others and making a positive difference in her patients' lives, she finds the continuing education aspect of nursing equally as rewarding.

"Nursing is not the type of profession where you learn it, you've got it, and that's it," she says. "There is always room to grow, to learn, and to gain a new skill. The opportunities are amazing."