Overcoming Life’s Unexpected Turns: The Inspirational Story of One CONHI DNP Student

Friday, Oct 28, 2022

Kiana Lacy, BSN and MSN graduate from UTA CONHI, is currently in the final stretch to complete her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), but unexpected obstacles have not made her journey easy. As she set out to finish her goal, Lacy pushed through and set an inspirational example for CONHI and for all.

In 2008, Lacy was accepted into the UTA BSN Accelerated Program through Texas Health and graduated with a BSN two years later. Soon after, she received an offer from the Neurology Unit at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas and started her career as a Registered Nurse (RN). Though life was going smoothly, Lacy was unexpectedly diagnosed with Pseudotumor Cerebri (Increased pressure inside the skull for an unknown reason which causes severe headaches and vision loss). This diagnosis required her to undergo surgery for a lumbar shunt which could prevent her vision loss from worsening. After consulting with a neurosurgeon at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, Lacy eventually had the surgery. Unfortunately, severe nerve damage that occurred due to the prolonged pressure from the Pseudotumor left Lacy legally blind. This also caused her to develop Epilepsy. The same unit and team she was training under months earlier was now caring for her. She questioned how in a few short months she went from a practicing nurse to unsure of where life would lead next.

“This was a chaotic time for me,” Lacy shared. “I had just graduated, landed a job, became pregnant, and now was being told I was going blind; all within the short time span of less than six months, I lost my vision, my job, and eventually lost the pregnancy as well. I did not have time to process what was happening.”

Life understandably became hard and upsetting. Everything Lacy had worked for and dedicated her time to was taken in an instant. She surrounded herself with her family, most importantly, her husband, who supported her and never gave up hope for her to accomplish her goals in nursing. In a pursuit to not give up, she began working with community organizations in the DFW area to provide nursing care, nutritional support, and mental health resources to children and adults. Lacy also worked with Infection Control to serve Veterans in the community as well.

Getting back into nursing and helping the community was the first step for Lacy, but she eventually decided going back to school would help her gain the experience to serve her community the way she truly wanted to.

“I came across Texas Workforce Solutions, and discovered they work with blind and low vision individuals to help them succeed in college and in the workforce,” Lacy shared. “I was introduced to Adaptive Technology, which gave me the capability to read textbooks, compose papers, and conduct research through the manipulation of text size, screen color, and voice features such as speech to text. I also partnered with (SAR Center).”

In 2018, Lacy entered the Master of Science in Nursing Administration Program at UTA. While in the program she especially wanted to serve the Veteran community and as her final project, she created The Continuing Community Care Partnership . This project provided grocery services, nursing care, medicine delivery, and other services to Veterans quarantined during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project led her to receive an award for Innovation in Leadership and Excellence from CONHI. Though it was a challenging experience, she graduated with her MSN by winter of 2020. Next summer in 2023, Lacy will graduate with her doctoral degree.

She plans to utilize her education and skills acquired over the years to advocate on behalf of her profession and hopes to create community partnerships serving individuals with disabilities, children of parents with disabilities, and orphaned and foster adolescents in the community. Lacy and her husband now have two children of their own, and adopted their third in January of this year. Together, they were inspired to write about their journey in a book titled, Nothing Stronger.

“We do not go as far as ‘our dreams', we can only go as far as our team,” Lacy shared. "I am forever grateful to God, my family, my church, UTA CONHI, The UTA Student Access Department, Texas Workforce Solutions, Texas Health Resources, UT Southwestern, and most importantly, to each nurse who encouraged me to never give up, to keep going, and who modeled alternative ways to deliver care and still accomplish the call of being a nurse.”

– Written by Midori Hrinda, College of Nursing and Health Innovation