From registered nurse to shop owner to nurse practitioner – Andalusia’s Lisa Teachnor has done it, and she couldn’t be happier.

The Florala High School graduate is known to many locally as the owner of the Dazzling Dandelion boutique. But in the south end of the county, she’s the newest face at the Florala Clinic.

Teachnor said her boutique fulfills her love of clothes, and her new career is one that fills her heart.

“I decided to be a nurse practitioner because being a RN is extremely hard on your body,” Teachnor said. “I was suffering from shoulder and lower back pain from pulling and straining on heavy patients. I didn’t want a completely different career because I loved being a nurse, so I decided to go back to school for nurse practitioner. Also, I wanted to learn more and to be able to do more for my patients, but I was ready to move from the RN role into something else.”

Teachnor said for her, it took seven years of schooling to become a nurse practitioner.

“I was first an LPN, then an RN with an associate degree, then RN BSN then back to school for NP from Troy University,” she said. “My degree is family nurse practitioner. It took a lot of support from my husband to go back to school. I worked full time, and went to school full time, so I was pretty much 24-7 one thing or the other.

“When I graduated school, I really wanted to work in a family practice somewhere because that is what I really loved in my clinical practice,” she said.

Teachnor said when she first graduated and earned her license, there was not an opportunity in this area for family practice.

“Several months later after working as an emergency room NP, I received a call from Doreen Bock the director of nursing at Florala Hospital about working at Florala Clinic,” she said. “And I jumped on it. It was what I had always wanted, and it was in my hometown. I never dreamed I would be working in my hometown. It feels great to give back to the community. The community needs the health care service. I really enjoy seeing people that I know and have went to high school with. It feels great to be home serving my community.”