Debra Koenigs-Gapp is returning to her small-town roots. Raised in Mount Calvary, WI, a town of 550 while she was growing up, she is a practicing registered nurse in Phoenix, AZ. In June 2008 she enrolled as a Physician Assistant (PA) program student at the UND medical school and, instead of staying in Arizona to complete her preceptorship portion of the program, she is moving to Valley City, ND. 

Clockwise from top: Debra Koenigs-Gapp in her Chandler, AZ, office; with her grandson Blake; with her husband, Loren.

     After two semesters of on-line classes the clinical portion of the PA program begins, including both didactic instruction and supervised clinical time with a preceptor. While the didactic instruction is on the UND campus, the preceptorship portion is usually completed in the students’ home states. Students are not required to move to North Dakota. But with her children grown and moving away and Koenigs-Gapp missing the family she has in the Midwest, she decided it was time for a move.
      “I have never really felt that Arizona was my home as my rural hometown roots still run deep,” she said. “I quickly realized that part of what I was missing was that Midwest ‘niceness’ and that people are genuine and concerned for you.”
      After many hours of her own time and with the assistance of Mary Amundson, MA, in the Center for Rural Health, Koenigs-Gapp was able to find a preceptor, James Buhr, MD, at MeritCare- Valley City. He is a clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine at the UND medical school.
      “I feel that I will have a wonderful small-town experience with choosing a North Dakota rural preceptor, and feel right at home with the people I meet there,“ she said.
       Rural health care is important to Koenigs-Gapp. She remembers the small-town doctor she had while growing up in Wisconsin who took care of everything from colds to major medical problems. She wants to be able to practice medicine like that as well and believes her experience at UND, coupled with her background in health care, will give her the necessary skills.
      “I want people to get past the idea that rural health care providers are not always as knowledgeable as those in the big city,” she said. “I know that I am drawn to my rural roots, and I feel that it is a strong possibility I will be practicing in a rural area to start.”
       Koenigs-Gapp received her home health aid certification at the age of 18. She then completed her licensed practical nurse (LPN) degree at Moraine Park Technical Institute in Fond du Lac, WI, in 1978 and moved to California. There she worked at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara and various nursing homes for six years until starting the registered nurse (RN) associate degree program at Santa Barbara City College. She graduated in 1985 and worked for several years as a registered nurse at Cottage Hospital.
      In 1989 she moved to Arizona, working part-time in home health while raising her children. In 1999 she started her current job as a Medicare case manager for CIGNA HealthCare, where she continues to work full-time. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Health Care Administration at the University of Phoenix in 2004, thinking that she would like to work in administration after all the years working as a registered nurse. She realized, though, that her calling was to be with patients and families, not supervise staff members, and enrolled in the UND medical school’s PA program.
      Koenigs-Gapp has three children and one stepchild. She and her husband, Loren, moved from Chandler, AZ, to North Dakota in January.