Because of a congenital birth defect, Kelsey Sullivent Trapp was born without her left hand and forearm and has worn
a prosthetic arm since middle school. It's never stopped her from doing what she has wanted to do, including making the
dean's list at the Medical College of Georgia Nursing School last semester.

"You have to play the hand you're dealt in life," Trapp said. "It's just the way I am, and I don't think about it most
days. Having visited the Shriners Hospital for Children since I was 18 to be fitted for prostheses, I saw many people wheelchair- bound, missing multiple limbs. I'd leave feeling lucky."

Trapp had been studying psychology, but realized she wouldn't be able to do much with a bachelor's degree. "I wanted
a career that I could take anywhere, so I switched gears and applied to nursing school," she said.

Although she had written about her disability on her application, it took her instructors by surprise when she couldn't
take a blood pressure reading the conventional way. Concerned about patient safety and her ability to perform clinical
duties, administrators asked Trapp to carefully consider her decision.

Trapp began researching and was relieved to learn about the story of Susan Fleming, a registered nurse in Spokane, Wash., on a nursing Web site (www.exceptionalnurse.com).

Born without a left hand, Fleming originally had been rejected by a nursing school, was later accepted by another and had practiced for 20 years. When Trapp contacted her, she called back the next day, offering encouragement and instructions on how to do the job one-handed.

"I decided that I really could do it," Trapp said.

Trapp has met the challenges of going to school. "I think everyone's surprised by nursing school. It's a lot more in-depth
than you think it will be, and you're surprised by how much time it takes out of your life," she said.

Her greatest challenge came last summer in the fundamentals of nursing course, in which she had to devise her own approach to performing basic nursing skills.

"It was a challenge to us as instructors as well," said Carla Allen, BSN, a former teaching assistant for the course. "My
first reaction when I realized she wore a prosthesis was 'what was she thinking?'

Then I figured if she had the gumption to be in nursing school and the willingness to learn, it was my job to give her the
opportunities."

Learning how to put on surgical gloves, insert an IV, suction a patient and catheterize a plastic dummy while maintaining a sterile field took long hours of practice. Allen and Trapp doublechecked their methods to make sure that they hadn't overlooked anything.

"Kelsey was an inspiration to us, always going above and beyond to learn what she needed to do," Allen said. "She had a drive that other students didn't have, and while it took her longer and her methods are different, her skills are just as good as the other students. And she's good with patients."

Now a labor and delivery nurse at MCG Health in Augusta, plans to get her master's degree and become a nurse educator.

Allen said that teaching Trapp was the best experience she had in nursing school.

"Nursing is all about critical thinking, and assisting in that course really let me use those skills," she said. Trapp has her final year of nursing school to complete and has been working part time as a patient care technician at St. Joseph Hospital in Augusta.

"I look back on what I've learned in the last year and realize that I'm already thinking like a nurse, the way I process
things in my mind," Trapp said.

She is thinking about working first in a med-surge unit for the experience, and later in labor and delivery, pediatrics or working in a heart catheterization lab.

"I know there will be lots of opportunities, " Trapp said. "If anyone really wants to do nursing, my advice is to go for it."