Father and Daughter Physicians to Serve Delaware Patients Together

The office at ChristianaCare Primary Care at Hockessin does not look quite the way Nicole Kushner, D.O., remembers it.

The space has been renovated. The back office where she sometimes did homework after school is no longer the same childhood perch.

But Nicole knows the place. She received vaccinations there. She watched her father, Stephen Kushner, D.O., care for patients there. And from his office, she could look out toward the pond behind the building — a quiet place to wait inside a busy family medicine practice.

This summer, after completing ChristianaCare’s Family Medicine Residency Program, Nicole will return to the same practice as a physician. Her arrival makes her the third generation of Kushners to care for Delaware patients.

Stephen was on his way to precept family medicine residents last fall when his youngest daughter called.

“She said, ‘Dad, I made a decision. I’m joining you in practice,’” he said. “I nearly drove off the road.”

When the surprise wore off, the significance of the moment settled in: the daughter who grew up around that practice would soon be seeing patients there as a physician.

“I was like: Giddy up! This is going to be awesome,” he said.

Nicole will begin seeing patients in Hockessin in late August.

A Family Calling

Stephen’s path to medicine began with his own father, one of Delaware’s early physical therapists, who encouraged his son to become a physician.

That advice led Stephen to osteopathic medicine and, eventually, family medicine. He liked too many specialties to choose one narrow lane. Family medicine allowed him to care for patients from birth through older adulthood, often within the same family.

“You take care of families and pull it all together,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be part of the most important thing in their lives, which is their health.”

As the years passed, many visits made room for family updates. Patients asked about his children and grandchildren. He asked about theirs.

“They trust you,” he said. “They know that you care for them.”

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Finding Her Way Back

Nicole did not set out simply to follow her father.

She grew up in Newark, graduated from Archmere Academy, studied biology and nutrition at the University of Delaware and became an emergency medical technician with the university’s volunteer ambulance service.

She went on to Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the same medical school her father attended, and found something to like in almost every clinical rotation.

Nicole resisted family medicine at first. She did not want her career to look predetermined. Then came her family medicine rotation.

“I had this moment when I was on my family medicine rotation when I knew I couldn’t give this up,” she said. “I can’t give up talking to all these patients and just learning from them and getting to know them.”

Family medicine brought together the parts of medicine she cared about most: nutrition, women’s health, children, older adults and conversations that continue across years.

At some point, the resemblance to her father stopped feeling like something to avoid.

“We are, in fact, totally alike,” she said. “Of course I’m doing family medicine.”

Rooted in Hockessin

After his residency, Stephen joined a ChristianaCare practice at a time when that model was still unusual.

He is grateful he did. Over the past three decades, ChristianaCare has allowed him to stay focused on patients while remaining connected to specialists, hospital services, residency education and community-based support.

Nicole noticed that over the years.

“I never considered private practice because of how much my dad raved about how well ChristianaCare has treated him,” she said.

When patients need support beyond the exam room, she said, ChristianaCare can connect them with health guides, social workers and other resources.

“The ties to the community are deep with ChristianaCare,” Nicole said.

That connection between primary care and community is one ChristianaCare leaders see playing out across the state. Priyanka Dixit-Patel, M.D., clinical leader for primary care at ChristianaCare, said the Kushners reflect what the work is really about.

“Good primary care is rooted in relationships,” she said. “That means understanding patients’ physical health, but also the family situations and the daily habits that shape how someone actually feels. Steve has done that expertly for his patients for decades, and Nicole is poised to do the same. It’s not every day a physician gets to welcome their own daughter into the practice, and that part is pretty special.”

In Hockessin, patient relationships often continue outside the exam room. Stephen jokes that he dresses carefully even for a trip to the supermarket because he is bound to run into someone he knows.

“I love this community,” he said.

Learning From Each Other

The Kushners share more than a last name and a specialty.

Nicole sees similarities in the way they approach patients. Both think about medicine as something patients help shape, not something simply done to them.

“Allowing patients to have autonomy in their own care is something I think both of us do really well,” Nicole said. “Together, we’re going to make sure that the things we’re doing are the right things for you.”

As a daughter and as a doctor, Nicole admires her father’s humility.

“After 30 years of practice, he comes to me and says, ‘I want your opinion,’” she said. “He has so much experience and is a master of family medicine, but he still admits when there’s something he wants to learn.”

Stephen still remembers the first time he precepted Nicole during residency.

“All I could think of is this is that little girl with the blonde hair and the bangs who would drag me in at night for a bedtime story,” he said. “And here she is — poised, professional, spot on with her diagnosis.”

Stephen’s patients have started asking what his daughter’s arrival means for him. Retirement?

“Heck no,” he said. “I haven’t lost the passion for caring for my patients, and now I get to work side by side with my daughter. How cool is that?”

The office where Nicole once did homework has changed. The work waiting for her has not — caring for families in the community they call home.

“These are the people that I live with, that I’ve grown up with and that I want to take care of,” Nicole said. “I want to help them through the rest of their lives and also help people start new families.”