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By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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KINGSTON – Given that she once hated hospitals, Cheryl Fuller said some people think it’s strange that she chose the career she did.

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Nurse practitioner Cheryl Fuller is available to help women in need whether it’s at Women to Women in Kingston or at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.

Steve husted/for the times leader

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“I always wanted to be a nurse, from as far back as I can remember,” Fuller said.

And so, Fuller, a nurse practitioner, prefers to meet with patients on their own turf or in her homey office, decorated with casual wicker furniture with thick, soft cushions and a small tabletop fountain in each room.

“A lot of women say they’ve never been so comfortable in a gynecologist’s office,” she said.

And while Fuller and her patients are comfortable in the office of Women to Women, the Kingston practice specializing in women’s health that she co-owns and operates with nurse practitioner Robin Gallagher, Fuller is happy to visit the Luzerne County Correctional Facility and a juvenile detention center to offer her services to women in those institutions as well.

“I really like the idea of meeting people where they’re at. I was always really taken by community health,” Fuller said.

That’s probably why she was drawn to provide services at low-income housing developments in New York City early in her career.

She suspects it was an aunt who lived with her family while attending nursing school who influenced her career choice. But she believes it was her father who inspired her to go for an advanced degree and become a nurse practitioner – a profession that Fuller, 66, of Dallas, has been in for 26 years. Her proudest moment was earning her Ph.D. in nursing from New York University.

“I was one of the first nurse practitioners in the area in the ’80s. At that time, nobody knew what a nurse practitioner was,” Fuller said.

Some people still aren’t sure.

“We can do about 80 percent of what physicians do,” Fuller said. “But we don’t do surgeries.”

Completion of a nurse practitioner master’s degree program enables a nurse practitioner to perform physical exams, order tests, diagnose patients and prescribe medications, she said.

Fuller and Gallagher initially opened Women to Women in Wilkes-Barre in 1996.

“We’re probably pioneers. Nurse practitioners generally work with physicians or for physicians. It was quite a little risk taking the step we did to make our own practice, especially because it’s taken physicians in the area a little while to recognize and support nurse practitioners. They do now and we found some lovely ones that are supporting us, but it’s just unique, particularly in this area,” Fuller said.

The state requires that nurse practitioners work with a collaborating physician in case they run into a medical condition they don’t have the education or legal ability to handle. But the physician doesn’t have to work in the same office; he just has to be a phone call away. Dr. Douglas Coslett in Luzerne is Women to Women’s current collaborating physician.

Dr. Martin Freifeld was the first doctor to fulfill that role for Women to Women, Fuller said. When she nervously approached him with the request and told him she and Gallagher intended to open their practice, Freifeld looked at her and asked, “What took you so long?” Fuller said.

These days, especially with a shortage of doctors, nurse practitioner services are in demand, and Fuller has done her part to make sure the profession is staffed with quality professionals. She recently stepped down as a teacher on the nursing faculty at Misericordia University, where she also coordinates the Migrant Farm Worker’s Program in which nursing students literally go out into the fields to treat migrant workers.

Whether it’s pursuing her passion of women’s health or helping farm workers in the community, Fuller said her motivation is “helping people in need.” Having been aided herself in a time of need — when the Agnes Flood destroyed her and her husband, Richard’s, home — Fuller describes her volunteerism and service as a “pay it forward kind of thing.”

The Rev. Ann Marie Acacio, retired pastor of Unity Church in Wilkes-Barre, has known Fuller 25 years and was one of three people to nominate Fuller for The Times Leader’s Health Care Heroes awards.

“I know her dedication and I know her experience, not only in the health care field, but also her passion for helping people. I know that for her it’s a labor of love,” Acacio said.

Kathy Sheikh, also a nurse practitioner at Women to Women and another nominator, called Fuller an inspiration to her former students. Sheikh should know, because she is one of them.

“There are so many people out there who aren’t getting the health care they need,” said Fuller

“I just want to be a part of helping them.”