The doctor is a nurse

Torrey AndersonSchoepe

After having taken 6 1/2 years’ worth of classes in 4 1/2 years,

Diana Lithgow received her doctorate in nursing in May from UCLA .

She finished her studies while also working as a nurse

practitioner at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic. And while being a

mom. And while conducting breast-cancer research.

Her work doesn’t stop there, though. She has helped in numerous

places around Orange County.

“I have opened up a fertility clinic program in Anaheim, and a

prenatal program for the Huntington Beach Clinic,” said Lithgow, who

has worked at the Laguna clinic for almost 20 years. “And at the

Laguna Beach community clinic, I have opened up a prenatal program, I

got the diabetes program up and running, and now my main focus here

at the clinic, besides patient care, is an abnormal-mammogram and

abnormal-pap program. I also teach a nurse practitioner program at

UCI and Western University.”

She got interested in research when she noticed that the devices

used to diagnose cancer only worked when the women actually had

cancer. There was no device to diagnose cancer in its early stages,

when it could be fought most easily.

Abnormal mammograms “got me interested in research,” Lithgow said.

“There were so many women who came in with these abnormals, and by

the time it shows up on the mammogram, they already have cancer.”

In her research, she explored and will continue to explore better

ways to diagnose breast cancer in its earlier stages, by looking at

the ducts, and different changes in the fluid of the ducts.

“Ninety-eight percent of breast cancer is in the ducts; the tube

areas where the glands are. If we can look at those ducts, and see

early changes that tell us those cells are abnormal, we would be able

to say there is something going on way before cancer develops,”

Lithgow explained.

“One of the things the body does to cells that are abnormal is

send all these inflammatory chemicals to the site. If we could see

these early inflammatory chemicals present in the ductal fluid that

comes out of the breasts, then we could see something is going on,

again, before cancer actually develops.”

She says she was able to balance this new research, a family,

classes and work at the clinic using a certain motto: “You can do

anything you have to do for a short period of time, as long as you

see that light at the end of the tunnel.”

Said Lithgow: “If you have the incredible support of your family

members, and work being very accommodating, if you have a good

support system of people that believe in you, you can do things that

seem extraordinary for a period of time.”

Lithgow is well known and well supported by her colleagues at the

clinic, who say that earning a doctorate has not changed her.

“She gives friendly, down-to-earth, practical advice,” said Korey

Jorgensen, the director of HIV services. “She continues to be very

hard working, and her PhD has not changed that.”

“It’s great how hard she has worked to be a top-notch, up-to-date

medical advisor, wife and mother,” said Chief Operating Officer and

Medical Director Thomas Bent, who has a worked with Lithgow for 18

years. “I have the honor of supervising her, but she’s more of a

colleague. She is very good at patient care, and she is very engaging

with her patients.”

Chandice Covington, Lithgow’s mentor at UCLA for 2 1/2 years, is

equally impressed.

“She did an outstanding job of taking an idea, and developing it

into a research study and writing it up.” Covington said. “She is

going to have three publications in national journals. She did an

excellent job. She works very, very hard; she is a good writer; and

she’s diligent about getting her work done.

“Now she has her doctorate degree along with being a very skilled

nurse practitioner, and that’s a really great combination for

healthcare in the world today.”

During the past four years, studying full time, working full time,

and being a mom full time, she was so busy that she is now catching

up on things.

“I don’t know what reality TV is -- everyone is talking about

that. I have missed a lot of stuff, but, No. 1, family came first,”

she said.

Lithgow has a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old, and even throughout

all her full-time work, she has never missed a school play, a

wrestling match, or any of her kids’ activities.

Now that she’s earned her doctorate, Lithgow is going to continue

to teach part time, perform patient care part time, and conduct

research part time. She believes it’s important to balance these

things, and that way, she can stay up to date with what she is

teaching. And she can get feedback from patients so she will know

what the current problems are.

“People who are teaching and haven’t been in the field for a while

lose their currency,” Lithgow said. “I also want to continue human

research and seeing patients because you are actually getting

involved in their lives, so you know the questions to ask, you know

the issues that need to be addressed.”

Lithgow plans to balance these three components.

“My goal is to have them all in a nice relationship where each one

is helping the other,” she said.