Caitlyn Kogel Morrell ’07

Caitlyn with her husband Nathan, daughter Lucy and son Wyatt

Nurse’s Private Practice Fills a Need in Her Community, and for Her Family

Caitlyn Kogel Morrell’s private practice was born out of necessity. Not just for her clients, but for her.

When Caitlyn and her husband moved to rural Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania, in 2014, she tried out various nursing jobs at the nearest hospital, in Hagerstown, Maryland. She loved the ER position, but it wasn’t conducive to family life. When she had her first child, she took a “more predictable” position with regular hours and no weekends or holidays. But something was lacking. “I am motivated by purpose,” she said, “and I felt that I wasn’t getting gratification at the surgery center like I had been in the ER days.” She went back to school to become a family nurse practitioner, had a second child, and started working in a primary care office. “I loved my patients and my co-workers very much, and I learned so much from the nurse practitioner who owned the practice,” she said. But, again, it just wasn’t working for her. She was driving 45 minutes each way across state lines to get to work in Hagerstown. Warfordsburg, where she lives, has only two primary care offices and no hospital.

“I had to make a decision as to what I was going to do moving forward—continue to drive two hours a day, wait for an opportunity in my local area, or create my own path and open my own medical practice.”

At the same time, Covid was ramping up. Caitlyn was upset that the local primary care offices were turning away patients who had Covid symptoms and weren’t offering testing. “It made patients and parents of patients have to take their kids or themselves to urgent cares or wait five hours in a line to get testing done before being seen by their provider,” she said. “I thought this was crazy.”

“When I caught wind of pediatricians not seeing kids with a fever, I decided to be a middleman for these patients,” she said. “Additionally, living in this very rural area, I realized quickly that we are lacking convenient medical care. I wanted to change that.” With her private practice, Caitlyn brings the medical care to the patients, either virtually or through in-home visits. She is also working on a brick-and-mortar location in Warfordsburg and sees some patients in Hagerstown. “I searched for the things that I thought the community needed,” she said, “and I capitalized on that.” She sees her practice as a “jack of all trades.” She offers services such as same-day injury and sick visits, a medication weight-loss program, physicals and drug screenings, travel testing and a unique vitamin infusion therapy. “I enjoy being able to reassure my community that I am there if they need me. I am happy to keep people out of the urgent cares or emergency rooms when it’s not necessary.” With her own business, there have been late nights and weekends dealing with paperwork and advertising, but she’s able to make her own schedule so she can spend afternoons and evenings with husband Nathan, daughter Lucy and son Wyatt. And that’s what it’s all about.