Tanya Harp, B.S.N., RNC-OB, C-EFM, said her own difficulties with childbirth have given her the ability “to care for families on their best and worst day with an empathy and an understanding most do not have.”
An NCAP (Nursing Career Advancement Program) Level V nurse for the last six years, Harp has been at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas for her entire nursing career. She started as a nursing extern in her senior year of nursing school in 1997 and then started an internship in 1998. Dec. 17 of last year marked her 27-year anniversary as a nurse and at Texas Health.
Harp’s interest in becoming a labor and delivery nurse started when her first pregnancy at 19 ended when she was induced at 37 weeks because of severe pre-eclampsia. There was no time for an epidural. Both she and her young husband were frightened, but a labor and delivery nurse “made us feel safe and cared for and made the experience not as scary,” she said.
That nurse was the inspiration for her career. “Years later, we went through the loss of our newborn. This even further solidified my purpose for where I work.”
Harp said the extra pay involved was the first thing that attracted her to NCAP. “But I quickly took pride in the professionalism and status that being an NCAP nurse gives you,” she said. “I am currently the chair of the committee at Texas Health Dallas, and I take so much pride in the portfolios that come out of Dallas. We are such an amazing group of nurses, so I love being able to represent them at the systemwide level.”
Some of the activities she worked on for her NCAP levels included developing labor and delivery policies, volunteering outside the hospital and helping to educate nurses.
“I try to be a preceptor every other year or so, and I also hold a secondary certification,” Harp said. “I usually do some sort of education on our unit at least once a year as well.”
Even after 27 years, Harp said NCAP helps keep her growing professionally.
For nurses who say they are too busy to join NCAP, Harp said, “JUST DO IT! It’s already work you do anyway. Every nurse at Texas Health goes above and beyond – you might as well be recognized for it!”
published
